#i still have a few more i wanna share but one is more lighthearted and the other is a little heavy on the cw

[ukulele-mixtape]

Maple Scraps: The Siren's Call Chapters 12 + 13 (i don't feel like posting them separately lol)

context: angst scenes. tune got outed as the siren when eggman attacks restoration hq and basically destroys all of tune's hard work by making metal sonic install a vocal distortion collar on her, forcing the voices she's taken to retreat back to their owners and her own going to metal sonic, rendering her completely mute. silver and sonic confront her.

this was the last set of chapters i worked on bc then i realized i actually had to finish the fic properly, and even then the chapter's unfinished and ends completely abruptly (i have no desire to actually finish it) LMAO

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

CHAPTER 12:

“Twili…o quis,

..shu ento…vi.

Abed…so…on,

Qwe…olda..e...” 

A song. A voice, no, multiple voices chimed in like a prayer floating in the wind, faint and pure.

It was beautiful. It was quiet. It was eerie. It was haunting.

…Where…was this…?

The voices continued, but they were no longer beautiful. They were destructive. They were blinding. They were painful. It was agony. Static rang, filling the fabric of reality and mercilessly breaking it at the seams. The broken choir sounded as if they were being signaled off from a dying record player. There was nothing left in their wake. Nothing could stop them. Nothing at all. He felt the world shake around him, every corner of this endless void of nothingness was out to get him.

It was just pure noise! Noise filled the air! It wouldn’t shut up, it wouldn't stop no matter how hard he tried to scream, to yell anything! He wanted to scream, please, let him scream! Let him do anything!!

 “Mu…as on…se,

Aln…ov…luuv...

tWli vO eqUiS,

aln nIv wO OLDANCE–”

STATIC FILLED EVERYTHING. EVERY THOUGHT, EVERY BREATH. MORE AND MORE, UNTIL HE COULD NO LONGER HEAR THE CHOIRS HAUNTING MELODY. UNTIL THE STATIC WAS ALL THAT WAS LEFT. 

 IT WAS TORTURE! OVERSTIMULATING!! HE COULDN’T TAKE IT!!!

WHY WAS IT SO LOUD?!

W H A T  W A S  T H A T  M E L O D Y–?!

Sonic woke up with a heaving gasp. He struggled for oxygen. For anything he could grab onto as he jolted forward from his bed, head beaded with sweat. His breath was shallow, harsh, like if he had just gotten out of the deepest, darkest trenches of the ocean after struggling to surface for weeks. But just like he’d been dealing with for the past month and a half, his mouth uttered no sound. The echoes of his dream rang in his ears, clinging to his brain and bashing itself into his psyche. His head was pounding, the worst migraine he’d ever experienced in his life mangled his skull, and he couldn't think clearly at all. The warm light of the room was too much for him to bear, piercing into his eyes and causing him to squint harshly. He could see specks of color from the corners of his vision, floating around as if to mock his current suffering.

What the hell was this?

He couldn’t hear a thing. The ringing in his head became louder. And this time, he’d finally understand that he couldn’t ignore it, he couldn’t just think it’d eventually go away. Not this time.

Everything seemed to overwhelm him. He closed his eyes and plugged his ears, trying to get any sensory input to be as muffled as possible. But no matter what, it’d still hurt; the pain dreadfully persisted. He wouldn’t notice the periodic yelling of his name was getting more frantic, but he did feel every vibration it had to offer even from far away. He was sensitive to everything around him, and he hated it. He was completely, totally, debilitated. Just like in that void of endless harmony.

Finally, for what felt like an eternity, he felt firm grips on both his wrists that he clung close to his face as he clenched his hands into tight fists, and he had to forcefully pry his eyes open to take in Silver's overly distressed expression staring back widely at him.

“I’m right here,” Silver repeated over and over breathlessly. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise, I’m right here.”

But as soon as Sonic took notice, suddenly, like if it never happened, the noise just…completely stopped. The pain evaporated, the ringing silenced and he was finally able to take in his surroundings clearly, his body relaxing after a good long while of unconsciously being tense, a deep inaudible sigh exiting his mouth before he even had the ability to even process it.

“Hey, are you okay?” Silver brought Sonic back to reality, releasing the blue hedgehog’s wrists and cupping his face gently with his hands. Sonic felt Silver’s warmth even under his gloves, a soothing feeling washed over him. He closed his eyes, sleepily smiling and gave a small nod in response. He placed one of his hands atop one of Silver’s at his face, taking another deep breath and sighing, feeling the way Silver would rub his thumb against his soft muzzle.

“Y-you sure?” Silver questioned again, his tone quivering a bit. “You…you looked like you were in a lot of pain.”

Sonic took his hand off Silver’s, signaled for him to look down and began signing.

“I’m fine. It’s gone now.” his nimble hands spoke for him.

Silver, ever the worrier, shook his head with an elongated breathy sigh. “You really scared me. If I hadn’t come, I feel like you would have been like that for a lot longer.”

“I’m sorry, I promise, it’s over. I’m good.”

“Promise?”

Sonic warmly looked back at his partner, leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek. Once Silver had that predictable blush festering on his cheeks, that soft grin he’d love to watch for eternity, he signed once more pointing one finger to his lips, before setting it down on his opposite hand balled into a fist.

“I promise.”

Reluctant, but deciding to trust him, Silver tightly embraced Sonic quietly, feeling the way Sonic’s body reflected his once frantically beating heart now starting to slow down into a soft, comfortable rhythm.

“It happened again, didn’t it?” Silver softly uttered. “That weird dream.”

Sonic gave him a small nod in return.

“That’s the first I've seen you get this bad before. I got up earlier than you did, so I just wanted to take a walk and get some air.” Silver rambled off, shuttering. “And when I came back you were holding your chest like you were having a heart attack! I tried nudging you at least a million times to wake you up, but nothing was working. You weren’t responding this time. And when you did wake up, you started convulsing and I didn’t know what to do, Sonic. I didn’t know, and you…” He trailed off. 

Sonic rubbed against Silver’s back quietly, patting him gently to urge him to finish his thought.

“...You looked like hell. You didn’t register anything. We’ve been here at least a few minutes now.”

Had it really been that long this time? Sonic grimaced at the thought, choosing to tighten his grip on Silver and feeling the edges of his tuft tickle his nose, sinking deeper. Years ago, he’d probably never be this touchy feely with anyone. But now, he’d make any excuse to cling onto Silver like he was the last man on earth when they were alone. Silver reciprocated in kind. 

“You shouldn’t have to go through this.” he mourned. “And I know you’re tough, I get it. We’ll get through this like we do everything else. But…I still can’t help but feel like I'm failing you right now because I don’t know what to do to help you. I should have been there with you the day you got your voice taken. I should have been there to protect you both.”

Sonic shook his head, rubbing soothing circles on Silver’s back, causing him to pull Sonic closer.

“I know…” Silver muttered affectionately. “What’s done is done. And I know we’ve got this. We’ve got this, and will fix this and we’ll do it together. Just like we always do.”

Sonic nodded once more, a smile gracing his features that Silver couldn’t see just yet. Silver could feel Sonic’s breathing become slower, more relaxed. But…he still couldn’t hear it. It made Silver’s heart ache. Sonic’s voice was truly gone. Silver couldn’t help but at least try to imagine what he remembered of it, goofy and cocky and full of life. His laughter was chirpy and quick, his tone lower in recent years yet still full of that same energy Silver knew and loved. Even if it had only been a short time, Silver felt like not hearing Sonic’s precious way of speaking was crushing him. Like he lost a part of what made him him. 

And every time he’d turn the corner, Silver could see Sonic reflexively try to sound anything he could while he mingled with his friends. And when Silver noticed how inevitably disappointed he’d be when nothing came out, taking out his phone and tapping away his desires to show whomever it was, when he had to start reteaching himself and reusing sign language, something he hadn’t wanted to use since he was little, it bore into Silver’s chest, reminding him of how much he’d scorn the person who had robbed Sonic of that freedom he so desperately wanted back.

Eventually, Silver was shifting forward for Sonic to lay back on the bed, resting his ear against Sonic’s chest and taking in the way his heartbeat thumped against his ribs, the closest he was ever going to get to any noise coming from his partner. He sighed, Sonic swiping a hand against Silver’s quills. And they just laid there for a while, just basking in each other's warmth. Sonic patted Silver’s head gently to get his attention soon, and slowly the psychic obliged, raising his head and placing his chin comfortably on Sonic’s chest, their noses just barely touching, sharing a loving gaze with each other, their minds confident and resolute.

They’d been through the worst of the worst in the past, fighting off time manipulating monsters and killer robots, doppelgangers and zombie hordes alike. There was nothing these two couldn’t handle; not just together, but with every ally they'd ever known, every friend they’d ever made. Regardless of the circumstances, Sonic knew they were in good hands and with a toothy grin and his playful tongue out, he would remind Silver of the same. Sonic may have lost his voice, but that alone wasn’t what made him who he was. He was everything, he was the world that Silver was desperate to protect.

The two leaned in for another good morning kiss, routine as usual…

And that’s when they heard the firing of something loud from above them, so loud the sound echoed for a few seconds into the atmosphere. Then, a deep booming crash, and the sound of yelling coming from just outside their room, the vibrations causing small pebbles from the ceiling to fall, startling the two out of their shared bed. 

“What the heck was that?!” Silver’s beading golden eyes flared, head jolting in every direction.

Sonic wasted no time, rising to his feet and throwing on his sneakers, snatching the door open and taking off, a powerful gust of wind trailing behind him as he sped past the hallways. Silver was right on his tail, flying to follow Sonic down to the main hall. People were scrambling to gather their bearings, yelling and running towards the closest emergency exits they could find, some of which were blocked off by heavy metal panels torn from the roof. There was a gaping circular hole in the center of the upper wall in the main hall, smashed and crawling with badniks making their way inside. Small fires were erupting, stone and metal paneled debris littered the floor, causing a few people to stumble.

Sonic waved in Silver’s face from above, signing quickly at him.

“Get that debris cleared from the exits, I'll help take out those badniks!”

“On it!” And with that, Silver was off, charging up a boost of energy to send him skyrocketing across the clamor, starting with the most crowded area of the headquarters, the main entrance. A large, looming boulder stood in the way, glass shards everywhere, most likely it was chucked at the window and landed square at the door. With a strong clench of his fingers, Silver took a deep breath and clawed his hands, performing a raising motion of his arms, a blue aura forming around the boulder. Slowly but surely, it was moving upward, rising from the sky almost like magic. The scrambling civilians would take off, some thanking Silver in scattered chirps as he held onto the boulder as best he could. Once a good amount of people were out of the way, Silver lowered the boulder to face right next to the entrance, unable to do anything more than that for the time being: there were still blockages to free up.

–

The robots may have not been all that tough, but they came in droves and were quick as can be, circling around the blue hedgehog in waves. Sonic blazed into the hordes of the badniks littering the floors. Flying Spina’s came from above, slicing into the air, but Sonic quickly dodged and attacked, utilizing an already destroyed Motobug as a weapon, sending at least a few Spinas into the nearest wall with a hard metallic SLAM! Then came the Buzzbomers and Egg Pawns. A cocky smile etched into his muzzle as Sonic quickly disposed of the trash, revving up a spin dash into the crowd of Egg Pawns, the robots barely having a moment to even swing at him with their pointed swords. 

Once they were taken care of, he’d homing attack into the Buzzbomers charging straight for him, bashing in their heads, small explosions raging behind him. And just as Sonic thought it was over, giving a flick to his nose in satisfaction and wiping his hands clean as he landed swiftly on the ground, a swing from a very familiar hammer came just beyond his peripheral vision, taking out a leftover Egg Pawn he’d neglected, leaving a large, heavy imprinted dent on the robot’s head. He watched as it fell motionless, and Amy casually swept in to meet his gaze, his posture showcasing how taken aback he was as she casually leaned her body against the weight of her Piko Piko Hammer. Nevertheless, he was thrilled to see her, giving her a big thumbs up.

“You missed one,” she mocked teasingly. Sonic sucked in his teeth playfully, crossing his arms mouthing a quick “Thanks, Ames”.

“The Diamond Cutters are with Silver; they’re helping out with the hordes invading just outside the main entrance, but there’s apparently still commotion coming from the shopping center. Let’s get down there!”

Sonic nodded in understanding, scooping up Amy in his arms bridal style, speeding towards the shopping center's direction. From the distance, they could see more badniks, larger and covered in tough armor, but strangely enough, entering the fray of the nearby shopping center were three mechanical Mobian-like beings, haunting distorted noises echoing from their caged mouths. They had smooth paneled heads with embedded over-ear headphones on the side and a faceplate with a colorful equalizer where their eyes should have been. They sported arms with mechanical drum hands, and their torsos were devoid of legs, a large disco ball-like base in place of them spinning around and allowing them to float.

The two didn’t hesitate, Amy taking a direct assault at any robot dumb enough to get close, effortlessly slamming her hammer against their hard metal frames. Sonic confidently allowed her to work her magic, zipping past and making sure to keep her protected, dodging all obstacles. The badniks were taken care of swiftly, but now it was time for the Robo-Mobian creatures. Determined, Amy called out to Sonic:

“Sonic! Croquette Bomber!” Oh yeah, this was so happening.

Sonic gently placed Amy down, excitedly getting into a ready position before revving up another spin dash, this time much faster, the speed taking off tiny bits of the floor as he rolled. Amy steadied her aim with a focused tongue to the side of her mouth, widening her stance and bending her knees, before swinging her hammer with the force of a thousand suns. Sonic went flying, but before he was able to even make a connection, the Robo-Mobians screeched a loud, high pitched noise, a sonar-like wavelength warping the area causing Sonic and Amy to groan out in pain. Sonic lost his balance, tumbling forward and reflexively covered his ears to muffle out the noise, but as soon as he did, he was viciously tackled by the neck to the wall of the clothing boutique by another one of the Robo-Mobians. Amy ran towards the blue hedgehog, readying another swing, but another screech from the other two Robo-Mobians decidedly ended her attempt to save Sonic, making her collapse in distress, her hammer falling close behind as she covered her ears.

“Amy!” Sonic mouthed out in alarm. Squirming in place, he managed to get a harsh kick to the chest on the Robo-Mobian in front of him, forcing it to crash into the other robot, freeing himself. He was on his feet in a flash, rushing towards Amy’s trembling side, placing a hand on her shoulder. Amy gave a quivering nod of assurance, looking shakily at the enemies before them.

“W-what are those things?” she whimpered. “They don’t look anything like the usual Eggman robots.”

Sonic shook his head in response. The Robo-Mobians quickly recovered, speeding towards their opponents and readying their drum hands, flying into the air preparing to go in for a smash. Sonic acted fast, snatching Amy away and hopping to the top of the boutiques shop, the latter grabbing her hammer as quickly as she could, before the robots broke through the tile, the floor violently crumbling away.

“We’ve gotta get out of here,” Amy called out. “We can’t take these things alone, they’ll just keep using that awful noise to down us again.”

She was interrupted by the Robo-Mobians charging their flight once more, ready to take off against the hedgehog duo, when suddenly…

“...You better step off!” A ear piercing roar followed by a massive energy blast came from just beyond, knocking the Robo-Mobians into the glass of the clothing store. Tune clumsily stepped into the limelight, heaving breaths as her eyes glowed a vicious yellow hue, her fashion glasses placed firmly on her head. Her demeanor said everything: she was overwhelmingly pissed. 

“Yo, any day today y’all!” She annoyingly called out. “Get your butts in gear and help me take care of these goons!”

It took a second, but Sonic recovered leaping into action, Amy following close behind and running up to a rising Robo-Mobian, giving a hearty punch in its direction, finishing the job Tune started. The robot was sent packing, exploding from out far, bits of its body scattering. As they did, colorful red, blue and green auras emanated from their cores, Tune’s eyes widened in horror as they scattered into the distance. 

Amy lept in for the other robot ready to ambush Tune from behind, slamming its head into the tile with her hammer hard, the mechanical pieces dripping when she lifted up the mallet, another purple aura materializing and floating away. The three were breathing hard, Tune much more so than the others, having a moment to finally recuperate. Once they were able to catch their breaths fully, Amy and Sonic both gave bright smiles to Tune, walking towards her carefully. But Tune was solely focused on the machine just in front of her, its body twitching weakly as a teal colored vapor seeped out of the wires of its chest cavity.

It couldn’t have been…

“Tune!” Amy cried, raising her arms in an attempt to give Tune a hug. “We didn’t know you could do something like that! Thanks for the save–”

“...This is...a Melodian.” Tune whimpered, halting them in their tracks, the duo taking note of her clawed hands balling into tight fists, so tight in fact they swore they could see her piercing herself. “I thought...what's with the robots? It's only supposed to be Alto's influence stretched out...”

The teal colored vapor circled around the robot's carcass weakly, Tune collapsing onto the floor in an attempt to cup it in her hands. A tiny voice was heard from its light, a song echoing into the wind faintly, as if it was slowly dying in Tune’s trembling hands.

“No! P-please don’t go!” the girl pleaded. “I just need more time! Please just give me more time to fix things!”

Despite her wishes, the materialized voice was fading, and fast. Tune cried out in horror, trying anything in her power to keep the tiny voice to herself, protecting it like a tortured mother. “I’m begging you! l can't fail you too!”

The hedgehog duo could only watch as the magical vapor slowly but surely drifted away into the atmosphere, and the world around them became morbidly quiet. Whatever had just happened, it wasn’t good, emphasized by Tune’s wailing exclamation, reaching into the air for nothing.

“Tune?” Amy worriedly stepped forward, reaching out her hand, but before she could she was stopped by Tune’s strikingly widened glare, her eyes still glowing that dangerous purple aura.

“Get away from me.” she spat, her body shuddering in her hysteria. “Do yourself a favor and leave me out of…whatever this is.”

“W-what?” Amy said exasperated. “But we could really use your help! Restoration HQ still has areas that need clearing out of Eggman’s robots. People need us to get them out–”

“Y’all should be thinking of a way to get yourselves out of here, not wasting your time helping people perfectly capable of handling themselves! Your friends already got most of the people evacuated anyway.” Tune gestured to the twitching robots on the ground with a sneer. “What, you think more of those things ain’t coming? They’re based on Melodist tech. There has to be at least hundreds, maybe even thousands of them wrecking havoc all over the place! That crazy doctor must’ve had a hand on this. He's obviously working with Alto to sabotage everything. They’ll destroy your ears before you even have the chance to look the other way.” The hedgehog duo tilted their heads in confusion.

“Wait, ‘Melodist’ tech? 'Alto'?” Amy chirped. “What are you talking about?”

“T-that’s–” Tune’s heart stopped in her chest, her big mouth opening against her better judgment. “...Not important. Look, just get the rest of your posse and get out of here, unless you want to end up like her.” She pointed towards the now still, lifeless carcass of the robot in front of her. “This place is done for. So much for that security you promised. ” Her last words seeped out like venom.

“Tune wait, we’re not leaving you like this after all that!” Amy pleaded, reaching out her hand.

“...Goodbye, Amy.” Tune muttered out, activating her skates and readying herself to take off. Her view of the exit was suddenly blocked off by Sonic’s body, who had been silently watching the whole conversation take place, taking the initiative to speed in front of her with his hands stretched out. He glared at her with those same knowing eyes she couldn’t stand to face. It was disapproving, he was staring right through her once again, almost as if to say “I thought you were better than this”. It was well deserved, and Tune soon found that pit in her stomach growing once more. Turning her head, she quietly uttered a tiny sound. “I promise to fix this…but I need to do it alone. I’m not allowing you to get involved in my mistakes anymore than you already are.”

Tune pushed Sonic aside roughly, causing him to stumble back a little. But before she could even take a step to skate off, there was a blue blur. Tune was tackled from the side right as she went to take her leave, familiar metal claws grabbed at her shoulders and sent her speeding off into the air with a scream, causing her to drop the blaster and her glasses falling off her head.

“W-what the hell?!” Tune cried out angrily, frantic eyes darting. “Get off me, you creep!”

Amy gasped as she pointed towards the two flying figures. “Sonic, that’s…!”

They recognized it immediately: Metal Sonic, exiting the gaping hole in the window and heading outside, Tune frantically thrashing against him, kicking and screaming the whole way. Eggman had to be there. They needed to catch up fast. With a shared nod of understanding, Sonic once more grabbed Amy and sped off, his pace allowing him to effortlessly climb the window and jump out of the hole, just in time to see Metal Sonic slam Tune down onto the ground mercilessly. 

From across the battlefield, Silver and the Diamond Cutters were locked and loaded in the fray against Eggman himself, in a gigantic towering battle mech. They had no time to react to Tune’s predicament, Silver launching Tangle, who in turn held a wispon welding Whisper wrapped around her stretchy tail, right atop the mech’s arm. Whisper went in for a disarming blow, utilizing her purple wisp in an attempt to saw off the forearm. Tangle whipped around the body, going straight for Eggman’s cockpit. Silver threw her a large rock, Tangle grabbing it by the tail before immediately smashing it into the glass.

“You pesky rodents just don’t know when to call it quits!” Eggman growled, his voice projected through an audio receiver on his mech. “My beautiful creations are too good for you; Now, get off my mech!” With a push of a button and a crank of a lever, the mech’s body started wildly spinning in place, Tangle and Whisper trying desperately to hold on, but ultimately were flung off, Silver just managing to grab a hold of the two and gently settling them down on the ground once more.

“Eggman, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Tune glared at the man piloting the mech, snarling. “I should have taken you down when I had the chance back in Melodia-!” Metal Sonic only tightened his grip as if in response to her threat, making her groan out in pain.

Eggman’s cackle echoed into the atmosphere, wicked and cocky. “My dear, you seem to have strayed a bit too far from home and caused quite the stir. Tell me, what was your plan here? To rid the entire world of voice in a pathetic attempt to spare people from Alto? How absolutely absurd. But no matter. So as long as you behave yourself, your pathetic life will be spared. After all, you have the highest honor of letting your voice be used for something greater than yourself, and I'd hate for you to miss it.” He grabbed onto his mic, calling out to his favorite creation from beyond. “Metal Sonic, get the Harmonic Distortion collar on the girl and get back to base. As much as I’d love to toy with these fools, we’ve no need to stick around.”

Everyone’s blood went cold, turning to face the chaos ensuing beyond. It felt like every bone on Tune’s body was breaking, her frame completely surrounded by larger badniks, tall and looming. Her hands interlaced with Metal Sonic’s harshly, her body struggling to hold on, Sonic and Amy fast approaching trying to burst through and help, Amy calling out her name in desperation as she and Sonic fought the onslaught of robots, Silver and the Diamond Cutters hot on their tails, rushing to their defense.

“ORDERS ACKNOWLEDGED: SUBJECT ‘FORMER MELODIST MAESTRO’ IDENTIFIED.” Metal Sonic’s low, threatening voice rumbled.  “INITIATING VOCAL SUPPRESSION PROTOCOL.”

Tune was losing consciousness and fast. She whimpered against Metal Sonic’s restraint, mentally forcing her arms to try and fight against his overwhelming strength. She could see the chaos ensuing around her from the corner of her eye, how everyone was desperately struggling to reach her, how Sonic and Silver raced against the clock, trashing every single robot in their wake just to attempt to get Metal Sonic off her, but were constantly being swarmed by more and more badniks. Silver would use his power to sweep them away, but more would just come, seemingly out of thin air. This was getting nowhere, they were losing. They were losing hard. She had no choice.

I need a way out, she thought to herself. I need this to end. For them.

Breathing in as deep as she could, she tried to attack, focusing all her energy into another sonar wave, much more powerful than her usual ones. Everyone’s eyes widened in shock as a faint glowing aura formed around her body, her eyes glowing in similar fashion. Her hair raised to the sky and a choir screamed out from Tune’s vocal chords, a lower register male voice added to the mix echoing a guttural, angered sound.

But even with all the voices combined, it wasn’t enough. Metal Sonic was fast, too fast for Tune to even manage to yell out for more than a millisecond, engaging Tune with a violent sucker punch to her cheek, her head shooting to the side with a yelp from the impact. She swore she could see one of her sharp canines being involuntarily spit out through her already blurry vision. Even despite everything, she struggled to try again, determined.

Another punch, more ferocious than the last, Tune saw stars. But she kept going, her aura quickly weakening, eyes glazed over.

Her aura melted away, Tune’s voice thoroughly silenced with another punch, this time directly onto her skull. The world was spinning. Metal Sonic’s chest cavity opened revealing a wired storage compartment with a thin collar embedded with a strange looking speaker, forcing it upon Tune’s neck, electricity zapping every nerve and muscle in her body. Her entire being was on fire, her muscles violently shook and contorted. Her eyes and mouth glowed sickly yellow as hundreds of lights aggressively materialized and scattered out, like she was vomiting a morbid rainbow of sound, screams heard throughout every corner. 

Finally, when the mesh of colors floated into the air, a single, solitary yellow aura slithered softly from Tune’s body. She desperately tried to reach for it aimlessly, her eyes widened in agony and fear. To her horror, it was placed directly into Metal Sonic’s chest cavity, morphing as a small, pulsing energy ball, a familiar melody singing in its hue, caged into a small capsule. The world was slowly going black. 

“N-no…Al…to….” Tune gave one last gurgle before her body finally gave out on her abruptly, rendering her completely unconscious in the middle of the field.

As the auras of screams scattered into the wind, a blue aura shot directly beyond the crowd of robots and straight to Sonic at inhuman speed, his body contorting as it entered his being. He grabbed at his throat instinctively, and for the first time in months, he could hear himself breath, gasping for air and falling to the ground, Amy barely managing to keep him from completely collapsing.

“Sonic!” Amy yelped, setting her hammer aside to grab onto his shoulders.

“Amy…” Sonic finally managed to get the words out raspily, hearing his own tone felt foreign to him.

“TARGET NEUTRALIZED.”

Eggman once more laughed maniacally, watching as Metal Sonic grabbed Tune’s limp body from the ground by her newly attached collar, throwing her to the side like if she was nothing more than garbage ready to be disposed of.

“Great work,” Eggman toothy grinned. “Let’s see this pesky little Melodist try to gather more voices now that Metal Sonic has claimed her power. The Dominion Hymn will be mine once I find the key to making Alto submit to me entirely. I'll come back for the rest of those voices soon enough. Now, all units: get back to the ship!”

Eggman began to take his exit, taking one last conniving look at Tune’s body, grinning devilishly. “Congratulations, my dear. You've just granted me the key to control much more than just Melodia.”

And with that, just as soon as they arrived, Eggman’s robots scattered, any who were being attacked would quickly evade and march onward. Soon enough, they would all clamor to Eggman’s humongous battleship above, ascending from multiple floating platforms awaiting their arrival. Eggman followed suit, and even when the Restoration members all tried their very best to knock him back down, it didn’t matter. He escaped confidently, his mocking laughter echoing in their faces, stretching across the atmosphere, a product of their failure…

It was eerily somber, a light wind all that sounded off as the battleship flew away. The fires had been dealt with, the citizen’s properly looked after, but the damage to Restoration HQ was massive. It would take several months for them to fix the ramifications of Eggman’s swift invasion. No one had any excuses, no explanation.

But Sonic? He could only stare back at Tune’s softly breathing frame as medics would arrive on the scene to drag her tarnished and unconscious body away to the nearest medical station. The world stood still around him, even as reinforcements and medic squads came to access the damage. He could only take in Eggman’s words. It was all that etched into his brain:

“Let’s see this pesky little Melodist try to gather more voices now.”

That’s what he said. But it couldn’t be…It just couldn’t. But his fragmented memories, the ones laid at his feet for months since his voice was taken, flickered in his brain, painfully playing out like racing film. The fight in Casinopolis, the electrifying kiss, 'Rhythm’s' mournful expression as she bowed to him as if he was her only audience member, and most importantly…that haunting, choir-like voice, echoing inside the dark walls of the venue; the same voice from Sonic’s nightmarish visions, the same one heard coming from her mouth. It all came back to him. Her attempt to stop Metal Sonic’s assault proved everything. He could no longer deny it.

Tune was the Siren they’d been searching for. She’d been hiding right under their noses the whole time just waiting for her opportunity to strike. And Sonic had unknowingly welcomed her into their lives with open arms.

When Tune was safely placed on the emergency stretcher, Sonic turned to the rest of his friends with a dazed shake of his head, trotting in their direction. His heart skipped a whole few beats when he noticed Silver’s contemplative, dark expression staring daggers at Tune being dragged away. It was almost like he was debating charging towards her and doing something Sonic knew he’d be more than capable of. He’d seen that look before, he had been on the other end of that look before in the past. And he knew exactly what it meant.

So with a swift movement, before Silver could even take that first step, Sonic grabbed onto his shoulder, squeezing it tight. Silver couldn’t help but glare at him, his tunnel vision shifting only slightly by the blue hedgehog.

“She’s the one who did it: She’s the Siren.” Silver all but growled. “She’s been stealing people’s voices away like they were tools.” His frustrated voice was getting louder with every passing sentence. “She’s been using us this whole time and we never questioned it for a second! She could have been plotting this whole time to steal the entire Restoration’s voices and we would have submitted to it immediately without ever even realizing it!”

“Calm down, Silver.” Amy’s voice chirped from behind. “We can’t just start assuming things we don’t know the full details of.”

“Amy’s right,” Tangle’s voice broke through. “I mean, she could have done it when she first arrived, but she didn’t. That’s gotta count for something, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t trust that she won’t try to, now that she’s been fully outed.” Whisper softly refuted. “We don’t know the full scope of her power. We don’t know her motive. But she’s a threat nonetheless. She needs to be put down.”

“We can’t do that to her!” Amy frustratedly argued. “If nothing else, we need to know the why before we can come up with a plan going forward.”

“Does it even matter at this point?!” Silver angrily retorted. “She stole the voices of countless other people who could potentially be suffering through the same thing, and she’s been lying to our faces about it the whole time. How can you defend that?!”

“I’m not,” Amy calmly stated, her palm raised to try and put an end to Silver’s line of thinking. “What I’m saying is that if we want to have any chance of fixing it, we need to get her to talk. And she can’t do that if she’s being beaten to a pulp while she’s still down.”

Silver went to argue once more, but Sonic’s firm grip brought him back to reality, his eyes darting towards his partner, who’s stern yet determined look made Silver stop in his tracks. Releasing Silver’s shoulders, Sonic spoke up:

“Silver...” He raspily said, noticing how Silver’s eyes widened at the sound of his voice. Silver latched onto Sonic’s cheeks, emotions layered in every corner of the psychic's expression.

“Y-you’re…” he trailed off.

“I’m here.” Sonic grinned, if only to try and ease the overwhelming tension. “I’m back.”

Silver grabbed onto Sonic like a lifeline, tightly embracing him as if he’d never see him again for as long as he lived.

When Tune was physically capable, when she would finally wake, they’d have much to discuss.

CHAPTER 13:

Silver was stationed firmly outside Tune’s room in the infirmary. He was never allowed in, and was told countless times by multiple staff members and friends alike to give it a rest. But he refused. For days while Tune recovered, still unconscious, he sat there just outside her door for hours at a time, only leaving when he needed to help out rebuilding and to check on his miraculously undamaged garden. 

He was awaiting her return. For anything. He was unbelievably angry, conflicted. He felt mournful and betrayed all at the same time. His mind went back to all the times he’d put himself out for Tune, how he’d chosen to make friends with the same person who’d stolen his beloved’s identity away. How she fought tooth and nail to retain that identity, only to be forcefully restrained and revoked of that privilege. 

Whatever Tune was plotting, Silver wanted to be the first to know. For all the fighting, the attempts to make her as comfortable as possible around the members of the Restoration, his overwhelming patience to watch her float around the bushes whenever they’d attempt to get her to talk about anything regarding herself that didn’t involve the bare minimum factoids, Silver wouldn’t allow her to escape from this. Because at this moment, the consequences of what she did now became a matter of personal vendetta. His future was once again at stake for the first time in years, and she was solely the one to blame. He’d get to the bottom of it, he’d enact justice for the people she’d taken the liberties from. 

And if she refuted at any point, he was ready to do whatever it took to get her to confess.

Despite his anger, Silver couldn’t help going back to the night on top of the greenhouse. Her foul attitude since that day had mended slightly, but her demeanor and insight about herself still lingered on in his brain:

“Don’t you think you should give this to someone who’d actually deserve it?”

“I don’t deserve y'all's kindness.”

“Y’all need to learn to put that energy towards people who need it more. People who deserve it.”

But the last conversation Silver would have with her, the day Sonic and him joined her on the sands on their trip to the beach, right before she planned to leave for New Mobotropolis, watching the waves go by and the world drift away, stuck to his angry, breaking heart.

“I can’t promise to spill my secrets right away. Frankly, I’m still of the mindset that y’all would hate me forever once I did. But I want to get better. It’ll be slow, but I’m willing to put in the work.”

And the daunting question still floating in the air, an unconscious plea for help.

“Can you guys be patient with me a little longer while I work my way towards that?”

Without Silver knowing, Tune had basically laid out the facts of her apparent turmoil with each conversation they’d have. And she had warned them directly: they’d hate her if she spoke about her past. He was reluctant to admit it, but there was a lot of truth to that statement. If not hatred, resentment felt more appropriate. Resentment and frustration for her selfish actions, even if she couldn’t have known how this would have affected him personally.

When the door to Tune’s medical room opened up for the third time that day, after about a week of empty updates on her condition, a nurse in a white lab coat was the first to acknowledge his presence.

“She’s awake.”

Silver suddenly felt his blood go cold. Would he have the heart to do it alone? To step inside and confront her dead on? Should he?

…He gave a small nod to the nurse, pulled out his phone, and gave a quick text to Sonic. It was quick, direct and to the point.

“Come down to the ward.”

It didn’t take long for Sonic to get the message, decidedly leaving Silver on ‘read’ before dashing towards the medical ward. When he got there, it was dim, the atmosphere stifling. The looming energy that Silver was exuding was so out of place for him, it was dreadfully painful watching him contemplate everything right then and there. Sonic joined him by the front door, taking his hand and giving it a tight squeeze. The nurse awaiting the speedster, opened her mouth to speak.

“Before you go in, there’s something you should know.” she began. The two hedgehogs looked at the nurse as she spoke, listening intently. “She’s stable, but she’s…she lacks focus. And whatever that collar that Metal Sonic put on her won’t come off no matter how hard we’ve tried. He took a direct assault towards her brain, and, well, due to the impacts and slight fractures she suffered through, she seems unwilling to speak a word since she’s woken up.”

Of course. It could never be that easy.

“Due to how fragile the situation is, it’s best not to stress her out too much.” the nurse continued, clasping her fingers together. “I know this is hard for the both of you, but if I can ask, please: Try to remain as calm as you can while you speak to her.”

Despite the nurse's insistence, the duo pressed on. With another firm squeeze of each other's hand and a nod to the nurse, from both of them this time, Sonic and Silver pushed the door open and entered the room. 

There, lying in a hospital bed with a full tray of food she was aimlessly pushing around, was the Siren. The two walked up to her quietly, Silver’s stoney expression hardened on his face. They both took the double seat farthest from her bed, unable (or rather, unwilling) to really get much closer. She barely acknowledged them, choosing to stare blankly at her tray. Frustrated, Silver used his power to steal away her spork and tray, placing it atop a nearby table next to the window. When she still didn’t bother raising her head, hands loosely placed atop her lap, he forced her to face them head on, using his power to gently lift it up. Her eyes still barely looked at the two, glazed over and undetermined. Her posture was limp, lifeless.

In essence, her very soul had given up. It was like she was barely hanging on, existing only because her body demanded it. But she herself was absent.

“I’ll get right to the point:” Sonic was the first to speak. “Why’d you do it?”

The Siren stood quiet, unbothered by his interrogation.

“It doesn’t help you any if you keep quiet.” Sonic continued, annoyed. “I think you at least owe us an explanation as to why I had to go months on end with my voice in your throat.”

Still nothing. It was like nothing was registering, or rather she chose to ignore it. Unrelenting, Sonic pressed on, trying a slightly different approach. “You’ve got nowhere else to go, y’know. The entire Restoration’s got your face down. Even if you try to run, we’ll catch you. So why not just fess up now? It’s not like you’ve got anything else to lose.”

Silver glared at the Siren’s glazed over expression, he felt his quills standing up with every passing second.

“You know, just for the sake of it, I decided it best to check on my timeline using a pair of Chaos Emeralds we have hidden away at headquarters. And do you know what I found?” Silver spat out harshly. “A freaking ghost town. People are aimlessly wandering around, and those freaky robots are marching the streets.”

His hands balled into fists, trying to keep calm like the nurse told him, but his emotions were quickly getting the better of him. Surprisingly, his words seemed to have struck…something in the Siren’s core. Her ears twitched at his words, eyelids raising if only ever so slightly.

“You ruined it,” he could barely stop himself. “Because of you, I have to start back from square one. I’m back where I started, like if all the hard work I put into protecting my timeline didn’t matter in the end. Do you have any idea how much that hurts?”

He saw the Siren gulp involuntarily, her expression softening and eyes glistening slightly as she watched Sonic place a hand on Silver’s back, rubbing circles, but choosing not to take his eyes off of her.

“Why won’t you answer me, damnit?!” Silver yelled out desperately, his eyes shooting out small tears he couldn’t feel himself cry out, a bit of saliva spitting out from his mouth. “Why can’t you just talk to us?!”

The walls of the room reverberated and echoed back at him tauntingly and empty, the Siren wincing slightly. A moment passed as the three locked eyes with each other silently. And then, after an agonizingly long beat, the Siren finally moved without a sound, raising a fist to her chest and circling it around. Sonic and Silver recognized it immediately.

“I’m sorry.” she signed, breathing harshly yet mutedly as she lowered her head once more. She repeatedly circled her fist over and over again as she sobbed, tears falling into her blanket soundlessly. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…” The duo sat dumbfounded. There was no way…

“You…can’t be serious.” Sonic muttered out, words escaping him.

The Siren just kept signing over and over, before grasping at her disheveled hair, the green she once wore was now faded almost entirely, revealing its natural black color. Her body mutedly heaved, shuddering as she continued to cry. She was like a child, rocking back and forth as she tried desperately to soothe herself and regain composure, to no avail. She tried signing as much as she could, her hands clumsily voicing what she could not speak.

“I didn’t wanted to hurt you.” she shivered, her errors in sign quite noticeable and movements expressly inexperienced. “I wanted my go home. I wanted to go my home. But my home is wrong. I can’t go home.”

The two hedgehogs didn’t know what to make of it. They had never seen this side of her before. Once she was a confident and brash loudmouth, now a mute, sobbing shell of her former self. It was like she was a completely different person. And it for some reason ached at the two deeply, watching her grovel atop her lone hospital bed, without any outlet but her hands to vocalize her pain, which were now once again occupied, grasping at her head.

Despite every part of himself telling him not to, Silver stood up and took a seat across from the girl. Despite his frustrations and every single part of him telling him it was wrong, there was still some tinge of sympathy watching the Siren pathetically mourn. He couldn’t understand it, but he felt deeply inclined, reaching his arms out to pluck the Siren’s clawed hands from out of her hair and onto his waist, placing both hands on her shoulders. She tried to resist his help instinctively, but he refused to let her. Once she understood, she aimlessly grasped at Silver’s body as she wailed uncontrollably. She kept mouthing out her apologies, despite no one able to hear. Sonic followed shortly afterward, taking a seat right next to the girl opposite of Silver and placing a hand on her back. He was unsure what to do for the first time, watching as her body heaved into his partner's stomach. He took a glance at Silver, who in turn worriedly stared back at him, his mouth thinning into a line. The two were on the same page: they were genuinely at a loss.

It took a while for the girl to recover. But once she was calmed somewhat, she released herself from Silver’s gentle grasp, Sonic removing his hand and resting it behind him, watching as the girl quietly signed off as best as she could.

“My home is in–dangered.” she hesitantly spelled out. “A-l-t-o took it from me. I do voice stealing because it…makes me strong. Makes me strong to chase away A-l-t-o.” 

“How does it make you strong?” Sonic asked.

“My voice…” The Siren, unsure of how to sign it, tapped the two hedgehog's chest with dual pointed fingers and gestured openly with her arms, clawing her hands like she was grasping at something on them before pretending to eat something massive. She gulped down, and then stretched an arm out into the distance, the other hand going for her chest like she was an opera singer. Then, she flexed her arms like she was proving something.

“I don’t get it…” Sonic scratched the inside of his ear. “You eat them or something?”

The Siren groaned out mutedly. She scanned the area for something to write on, eyes focused on a lone notepad and a small pen left behind by the nurse. She gestured to it, Silver using a single finger to bring it to her with his power. She scribbled quickly.

“THE MORE VOICES I STEAL, THE MORE POWERFUL MINE BECOMES. IT’S LIKE THEY BECOME PART OF ME. MY INCANTATIONS ARE STRONGER THAT WAY. THEY REACH FURTHER.”

“But that still doesn’t explain the why, Tune.” Silver spoke up. “Why are you doing this? What’s your end goal here?”

She hesitated at first, unsure of how to explain. Silver tried again, desperate for anything she could muster.

"Please, just let us help you. Talk to us, Tune."

There was no turning back. She was already in deep trouble, and it was pointless to try and lie anymore. The words she wrote next were simple and direct, full of the most honesty she forced herself to muster that day.

“I DID IT TO PROTECT YOU.”

‘Protect’? What did that mean? She continued swiftly.

“ALTO CAN STRETCH HIS VOICE TO OTHER PEOPLE AND CONTROL THEIR MINDS. HE LITERALLY FORCES HIMSELF ONTO YOU WITH HIS VOICE. BUT HE CAN’T DO IT TO PEOPLE WHO ARE WITHOUT A VOICE TO MANIPULATE.”

“So you steal other people’s voices so that Alto can’t get to them first?” Sonic asked, grasping at his throat instinctively. “So that day in Casinopolis…”

“I STOLE YOUR VOICE IN AN ATTEMPT TO MAKE SURE YOU DIDN’T FALL VICTIM TO HIS SPELL." The Siren scrawled out. "I WANTED TO DO IT FOR EVERYONE AT THAT VENUE. EVEN IF YOU CAN’T SPEAK, YOU CAN STILL LIVE YOUR LIVES. YOU STILL HAVE OTHER WAYS TO COMMUNICATE. BUT ALTO STRIPS THAT FREE WILL THE MOMENT HE GETS HIS HANDS ON YOU. I HAD TO MAKE THE HARD DECISION. EVEN IF IT MEANT BECOMING THE ENEMY, I CHOSE TO PROTECT.”

“But why not just say something, Tune?” Silver frustratedly reprimanded. “We could have helped you. We would have understood—” A harsh slap on his thigh with her two fingers was all he needed to shut up. She quickly flipped to the next page, already taken nearly half the notepad up in her writing and continued, her annoyance at Silver's comment proved by how her handwriting worsened.

“DO YOU HONESTLY THINK PEOPLE WOULD BE OKAY WITH ME JUST STEALING THEIR VOICE AWAY IF I JUST UP AND ASKED? EVEN IF I HAD THE TIME AND OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING? DO YOU HONESTLY THINK THEY’D BELIEVE ME? BE SO FOR REAL RIGHT NOW.” 

“I hate to admit it, but she has a point, Silv.” Sonic sighed.

YADA YADA PLOT DETAILS WRITING IS HARD I LIKE CAMP BETTER OKAY THAT'S THE END YEYYYYY

[paisleypens]

SPENCER AGNEW!? SHARING HOODIE?

omg imagine :))))

IMAGINE OMG I LOVE HIM SO COMFY SO COZY

spill it | spencer agnew x reader

~~~

While you loved the chaos of being a PA for the Smosh Games channel, some days you just needed some peace. Luckily enough you found it in your coworker Spencer Agnew. The relationship had started innocently enough. A few late nights working on the new Games set had turned into shared jokes, then dinners, and soon enough, something more. But for the sake of professionalism, you both decided to keep it a secret from the rest of the office. The late-night texts, stolen kisses behind closed doors, and hushed conversations had become your norm. Tonight, however, felt special.

"Hey, you wanna come over tonight?" Spencer asked quietly, leaning closer as you both tested a new controller on the Games stage.

"Sure," you replied, your heart doing a little flip at the thought of spending more time with him.

Later that evening, you found yourself at Spencer's apartment, cozy and warm. After a quiet dinner and a movie, you were both curled up on the couch, wrapped in each other's arms. As the night grew colder, Spencer noticed you shivering slightly.

"Here," he said, grabbing one of his hoodies from the back of the couch. "Take this. You’ll be warmer."

"Thanks," you smiled, slipping it on and reveling in the comfort it provided. You hadn't planned on staying the night, but as you snuggled closer, you drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, you woke up to the sunlight streaming through the windows. Realizing you were running late, you quickly got dressed and rushed out the door, still wearing Spencer's hoodie. It wasn’t until you were halfway to the Smosh office that you realized what you had done. Panic set in, but there was no time to go back and change.

As you walked into the office, you tried to act normal. However, it wasn’t long before Courtney noticed the hoodie.

"Nice hoodie," she said, a smirk playing on her lips. "Isn’t that Spencer's?"

Your cheeks flushed bright red as you tried to think of a plausible excuse. "Oh, uh, yeah. He lent it to me because I was cold."

Courtney raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying it. "Right. Just cold."

As the day went on, more people started to notice. Shayne gave you a knowing look, and Damien couldn’t help but tease you a little.

"Didn't know Spencer was into sharing his clothes," Damien joked, winking at Spencer who was equally flustered.

By lunchtime, the secret was out. Spencer and you were cornered by the rest of the crew in the commons.

"Okay, spill it," Olivia demanded playfully. "How long have you two been a thing?"

Seeing no point in denying it any longer, you and Spencer exchanged a glance before admitting the truth. "A few months," Spencer said, squeezing your hand under the table.

"About time!" Ian Hecox exclaimed. "We were wondering when you two would finally come clean. You have some paperwork to fill out."

“He has had those papers on deck for months.” Anthony chuckled before handing Ian five bucks.

Relief washed over you as the initial awkwardness dissolved into lighthearted teasing and genuine support. It turned out, keeping the secret had been more stressful than it was worth.

As the day came to an end, Spencer pulled you aside. "You okay?" he asked, concern in his eyes.

You nodded, smiling up at him. "Yeah. Actually, I’m glad they know. It’s a relief."

"Me too," he said, pulling you into a hug. "And hey, you look cute in my hoodie."

Blushing, you stood on your tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. "Thanks. Maybe I’ll borrow it more often."

Spencer grinned. “Anytime. Now, how about we go get dinner? I know a place.”

“You always know a place.” you giggled.

And with that, you and Spencer walked out of the office together, no longer a secret but something even better – a couple who could finally be themselves.

[writingmeraki]

you're no good for me.

a min ho oneshot !

summary : five times you thought he didn't care and the one time he showed you he did.

( or five times you were oblivious to how much he truly cared and the one time he made it obvious. )

genre : angst ( a bit? ) fluff, comedy ( attempts )

pairing : minho x gn!reader, e2l, frenemies to lovers! idiots to lovers!

warnings : cussing, descriptions of blood,injuries and bruises, reader is pretty oblivious, mentions of underage drinking, kissing, kinda messy :/

author's note : i don't even know what to say tbh ? this is so much longer than I thought to the point where I think I may have rushed the ending lmfaoooooooo welp I hope u enjoy this still haha <3 sorry for the wait 🤕🤕🤕 ( my own lovers to enemies arc with this fic bcoz I overthought as usual ) let me know what you think !!! also anon pls the angst was less but like it was a v lighthearted fic from the beginning asdfgh- i still hope u like it 😔<3 also also i kinda have a little drabble as a continuation for this but I'll see if i wanna post it based on your feedback hehe so let me know! ( barely proofread <3 )

word count : 11.6K ( longest oneshot i've ever written omll )

based on this request !

THE FIRST TIME.

"Fuck why do I feel like someone just pounded my head with a hammer?!"

You groaned as you woke up from your sleep or rather lack of sleep. You'd only been able to get barely 2 hours of sleep when you'd gotten back from the party last night

A party that you didn't even want to go to but were emotionally blackmailed to and even worse it was fucking Minho's party.

Technically, it's his fault you're in this state of crankiness.

You were sitting up on your bed, hair in all directions as you nursed the headache you'd gotten. Lack of sleep really gave you the worst of headaches and it didn't help you'd drunk a little, not more than a few sips, but the after-effect was definitely there.

You hissed as your bare feet touched the cold floor before you finally found your fuzzy bunny slippers you'd gotten as a gift from Kitty.

You dragged yourself out of your room, now being able to make out people talking on the other side.

"Well look who we have here looking like an absolute angel."

"Shut it Minho."

The retort came out like second nature as Minho smirked at your state despite the tiny concern that flashed across his face when he saw you holding your head as you sat on the floor between Kitty and Q who only shared a look when they definitely didn't miss that flash of concern.

You looked at Q, questioning "So why are we having a family meeting here?"

"We were just having a discussion about weird dreams." Kitty answered you and you looked at her, humming and suddenly a light bulb lit up from your only two alive braincells.

"You had a sex dream." Both Q and you said at the same time, him sitting up while a smirk just formed on your face.

"Was it about Dae?" Q asked holding his coffee in his hand. Kitty's eyes widened and shook her head immediately.

"So it wasn't about Dae, huh." You said as you wondered, your slightly swollen eyes blinking in thought.

"No! No I didn't say I had a sex dream." Kitty tried defending herself.

You lightly snorted, yawning a bit, "You didn't have to though."

"Exactly now spill." Q continued and you noticed movement from behind and saw Minho coming, with three mugs in his hand, handing one to Kitty and one to you.

He was oddly quiet and stiff, now wondering what made him like that because he'd definitely would have said something snarky by now.

"-dreams don't mean anything!" Kitty's voice pulled you out of your thoughts and you sipped your coffee skeptically hoping it's not poisoined, but you hummed in satisfaction at the sweetness that contrasted the bitterness.

It was exactly how you liked it. Not too bitter like how people would usually drink it, you preferred it sweet because you had a huge sweet tooth.

Minho's gaze shifted towards you, recalling something as he swallowed nervously when he saw the small grin on your face.

"She's right! They don't mean anything." He suddenly looked towards Q who was already looking at him with his eyebrows raised, sipping his own cup.

Your eyes opened and you lazily looked at Minho, whose body language seemed even more stiff now.

"You could have a sex dream about someone you've repulsed your whole life." You looked in confusion at his words, one eyebrow raised.

Kitty agreed "Yes, yes exactly thank you Minho."

"He could have a sex dream about someone like…Y/N!"

You almost choked on your coffee before you spat out what was in your mouth, as Minho had a similar reaction.

"So you had a sex dream about Y/N." Q said as if it was the most obvious thing and you looked at him in horror.

"Hello?? Why are you talking about me as if I'm literally not here?" You were ignored as Minho quickly defended himself,

"No I didn't." He said, avoiding looking at you as you continued to stare at him with your eyes widened.

"And if I did have a sex dream about Y/N, it'd be a sex nightmare." You scoffed at his words while Kitty whispered Oh my God.

"Please, you'd be lucky to even have me in your dreams let alone real life." You spoke before you could think about it.

"So you still had sex?" Q piped up and Minho quickly blurted,

"Dreams don't mean anything! Besides I hate Y/N!" He said sparing a glance at you who just seemed confused at where this conversation had led up to.

"Wait a minute-"

"We're getting late! I still uh need to get ready!" Minho said turning around before you could even question anything, not being able to see how red his face had gotten as he ran to his room and slammed the door shut.

Blinking once and twice, you looked at Kitty and Q,

"So can someone just tell me what happened?"

They indeed didn't tell you anything, or rather didn't get a chance to before the door was knocked on and in came in your advisor, telling you about how you all had gotten Saturday detention and hoped last night was worth it.

You groaned as he left, holding the cup of coffee mumbling curse words. The same cup of coffee, that was exactly how you liked it, that was made by Minho. Something you didn't even realize how he knew your perfect order.

THE SECOND TIME.

You'd rather be watching paint dry than be in this boring detention.

Saturday flew in and in no time, were you already sitting in the library for your eight hour detention.

You groaned as you leaned forward, wanting to drop your head on the table before a hand placed itself between it and the hard surface of the table, making you hit it softly and for a second you thought about how warm it felt.

"You'll damage the tiny amount of brain cells you have in there." Minho's voice mocked you, as you looked up, your chin laying on his hand.

Glaring, you didn't even realise how he gulped at how you'd still maintain physical contact by not lifting your head up.

"Screw you." You scoffed, sitting straight up,

"Why am I even sitting with you?" You questioned crossing your arms and the scowl didn't leave your face.

"Maybe you finally realized how obsessed you are with me and felt like you had to be closer to me." He said with that annoying smirk plastered on his face.

You snorted, "Please it's only because it was the only seat available!"

The smirk didn't leave his face, only growing wider as he leaned in to whisper in your ear,

"All I'm hearing is excuses." His voice rang in your ears, noticing the rasp and how deep it sounded, swallowing nervously, you didn't know why you felt like your heart would jump out of your chest.

You leaned away from him, rolling your eyes, brushing away what you felt as irritation from being around Minho too much.

You shivered due to the temperature in the library being too low for your liking, the air conditioning being colder than you would have kept it.

You internally cussed at yourself for wearing a crop top instead of bringing an extra sweater with you,forgetting it's usually chilly in there.

Minho noticed the shiver, rolling his eyes, he suddenly began taking off his own bomber jacket. You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion but they relaxed when you felt a sudden warmth engulf you.

"You'll catch a cold and it'll end up infecting everyone." He scolded you before you could even say anything, words dying down before you could even question his actions, too stunned.

You just blinked at him, mumbling a small thanks to which he just sent you a curt nod, his attention back to the doodling he'd been doing in his book.

"Did he just-"

"Yes. Yeah he did."

Kitty questioned to which Yuri answered both stunned at what they'd just seen.

"Don't they, I don't know, hate each other?" Yuri asks, confused looking back at Kitty.

"Guess hate and love are two sides of the same coin, afterall huh?" Kitty spoke up.

They both paused and looked at each other, bursting out in giggles.

THE THIRD TIME.

You stared at the clock, your eyes fixated on the minute hand that moved agonizingly slow, your head resting on the palm of your chin that was using your right arm as a stand.

You sighed mumbling to yourself about how time seemed to be against you.

“Instead of boring your eyes into the clock, maybe if you paid attention to what was being taught, your tiny brain could finally excel in this.”

You rolled your eyes and turned your head towards the boy who sat beside you.

Pausing a bit when you realised how the sunlight from the window literally made it seem like he glowed, his cheekbones highlighted by it and his lips seemingly more plump and pinker as he spoke.

Minho’s attentions wasn’t on you though, at least it would seem like that because he was staring ahead, his focus on his notes as he wrote what was being taught, his hands splayed across his notebooks.

Even when he sat, you noticed he still seemed taller than you. Sometimes you even wonder how you always end up next to him.

“I’d say take a photo and it would last longer but I’m pretty sure you already have enough of those with you, stalker.” He said, taking a peak at you from the corner of his eyes, a smirk forming on his face when he saw you scoffing.

“As if, besides since when did you care about me paying attention or not.” Minho stopped for a second at your words, hand freezing mid way from his note taking and it was now his turn to roll his eyes at you.

“Because you’re a distraction.” He spoke lowly, making sure you were the only one who heard, and only now you noticed you’d both been murmuring amongst each other as if you were friends just gossiping.

Not wanting to argue more, you just sighed and looked ahead,

“Ugh, whatever.”

You looked down at your own notebook, narrowing your eyes when you saw you’d only written half a page and stealing a glance at Minho’s, your eyes now widening when you counted that he was already on what seemed like his third page.

Damn I really must have zoned out.

Now you just thought of your options, either you skip some pages and just write what was being taught at the moment, finishing what you missed afterwards.

Clicking your tongue, you just closed your notebook, slightly pushing it away. Knowing being at the way back in a crowded classroom was helpful at times like this but having Alex as your professor being another advantage, you folded your arms on the table and plopped your head onto it sideways.

You sighed, relieved at the position, even though it may seem uncomfortable, but at the time, it felt just right.

You shut your eyes, the last thing you saw being Mingo from the way you had positioned your head, with you facing towards him and let yourself be surrounded by the temporary darkness.

“So you’re just going to sleep during the lecture?”

“Yep.” You said still with your eyes closed.

“I barely got any, considering the Vampire Diaries marathon Kitty and I had last night.”

You mumbled, feeling yourself give in to your dreamland.

“You both are terrible roommates because who even has a series marathon in the middle of a school week?” Minho asked you scoffing, turning his head to his left so he could look down at you.

You opened one eye and put your tongue out childishly to mock him,

“Only the fun kind of roommates, now shut up and do your work, let me sleep.”

“You seriously need to be more responsible, I mean come on, you have dark circles right now.” He whisper yelled as he scanned your face.

“Okay mum. I’ll make sure of it.” You murmured to him, the last of your words being softer as you finally gave in to your dreams.

Minho sighed when he heard you exhale softly, seeing the way the sun reflected on your face.

He wondered how you could just fall asleep but then again he knew you’d probably stayed awake just to give company because he knew you didn’t even like The Vampire Diaries.

You’d once told how lame you found it that the only relevant plot was two brothers fighting for a girl, and how it was ridiculously stupid.

He moved his body a bit forward, so that the sunlight could not fall on your face, and upon that the scrunch in your brows relieved unconsciously. He reached his hand forward to tuck away the hair piece that seemed to bother you. His fingertips lingering on your cheek and you leaned into the touch unknowingly.

Pulling his hand away, he gently smiled at you, shaking his head fondly as he brought back his attention to what was being taught.

[ a few moments later ]

“Wake up sleeping beauty, it’s time.” You heard as you felt someone flick your forehead.

Groaning you swatted away the hand, as you slowly rose up, rubbing your eyes, and blinking a few times as you tried recalling who you were and where you were.

“Seems like someone’s nap time was well.” Minho smirked at you, packing his books away to which you turned to him and glared.

“Hope you dreamt of me well!” He said a grin on his face now as your lips pulled into a thin line.

“Yeah it’d be more of a nightmare if you showed up in my dreams.” You said rolling your eyes, and gathering your own notebook, realising it was pretty pointless to have even removed it today as you basically barely wrote anything.

You pulled your bag up to the desk and tucked away your book.

Minho slid a book towards you, making you pause your movements as you glanced at him in question.

“Here, today’s class work and homework as well, if you don’t get something, considering you probably won’t, come to the library after school is over.” He said standing up, to which you still looked between him and the book in question, skeptical of his sudden act of…kindness?

“Stop staring idiot, you’ll get late.” He said as he slowly walked away, you thought about it and grabbed his notebook, putting it in between your own and standing up, sliding one strap on your shoulder.

“Thank…you?” You said turning around noticing he was already gone.

Huh, weird. Well that was nice of him…for once.

You shook your head, walking out as well, realizing you indeed learn something new about him every time.

THE FOURTH TIME.

It was another outing of the nature club you'd join in support of Kitty's new venture of wanting to do new things.

Although initially, you'd reluctantly agreed but you'd learn to enjoy it once you spent more times with nature.

Though sometimes you wish you could just jump off the cliff because lo and behold, Minho had also spontaneously joined it as well.

Over time, you'd just learnt to ignore his shit, just paying attention to your surroundings and focusing all your energy on that.

You didn't even notice how he'd always be trailing beside you though, since the beginning of it actually.

But of course those around you did.

Q and Dae looked at their best friend, both wondering the same thing.

"Do you think he notices?" Dae asked as they hiked up, Q looked at him in question and followed his gaze, perceiving what he meant.

“He is still in denial as to why he even joined this club in the first place, remember how much I tried convincing him to join but he always refused with bullshit excuses but suddenly when Y/N joins, he’s apparently thought about it well and understood it was good to be one with nature, hence why he would be joining.”

Dae shook his head, chuckling as he recalled the denial on his face from when they confronted him about it.

“I don’t even think he realizes that Q, let alone how he always seems to be beside them when he gets the chance.” Dae said, staring at the pair of you, you seemed more than happy to be there as Minho skeptically walked beside you.

Suddenly an arm was placed in front of you, making you suddenly freeze in your place and your gaze followed it to the owner, confusion flooding your mind as you looked at Minho in question.

He moved in front of you and knelt down on one knee, to which your eyes widened and you looked around to see if anyone else was seeing this.

Hissing at him, more so in confusion, "What the hell are you doing?"

He scoffed and pointed down at your shoes, more so your shoe laces.

"You'll literally trip on them and fall on your face resulting in you getting hurt and you'll end up causing problems."

Once again, your mouth gaped at him as he went back to his task which was tying your shoelaces.

At times, he truly did confuse the ever living fuck out of you. Because for one he'd be doing the nicest things but then the gesture would be contradicting with what he would have to say afterwards.

You noticed how strands of his hair moved out of place as a result of him looking down to focus on tying your laces.

You bit your lip to control the smile from spreading on your face and he got up, dusting his hands.

"You know you should be grateful that I decided to be with you right now otherwise your clumsy ass would have probably broken a foot by now."

There it was. The contradicting words to his gestures.

Not wanting to start an argument, you just sighed and shook your head, mumbling a thanks as you walked ahead, having been left behind by a few paces.

Minho glared at you, taking a few steps to catch up with you,

"That was mean of you." He said and you took a side glance at him to see a frown on his face and you sighed once again,

"Thank you so much Minho, whatever would I have done if it weren't for your presence."

You grinned widely, blinking your eyes forcefully as you fluttered your eyelashes.

Before he could speak again, you turned forward and rolled your eyes, continuing your hike.

When you reached the top view, you could see the entire city of Seoul and just how mesmerizing it looked.

As a whole it looked breathtaking, the tall buildings and the miniature figures doing about their own things, the sky's colours contrasting the shades, the sun setting slowly as the last warmth of it bled on your face.

You didn't even notice Minho was right beside you, admiring the city view as well. Though his eyes naturally drifted towards you, even if he never wanted them to but it seemed like second nature to him now, his eyes finding you anytime you were around.

Your own sparked as you took in the little details of the view, unknowingly a smile forming on your face making the tiny depths form on your cheeks. Your hair slightly moving from the soft breeze and you'd laugh at the timing but you didn't notice that as you were too in your own world.

Blinking, he felt his own heart flutter as he whispered so tenderly, you probably wouldn't have heard him if he weren't next to you,

"Beautiful, you really are beautiful."

Looking beside you, you were once again left speechless when you saw who it was, and pretended you didn't hear, asking

"Sorry what was that?"

That seemed to snap him out of his gaze as he looked in front, coughing into his hand, sounding more fake than real,

"Uh, I meant that the view is really beautiful! Yeah the view…" He looked to the other side to make sure you wouldn't see the redness forming on his face.

You just nodded at him, turning your attention back in front of you,

"It is, isn't it? It was definitely worth the hike!"

You beamed as you put your hands on your hips, happy with the end result of the exhausting hike.

"Anyways we should be heading down now, if we were to reach before nightfall."

You paused looking around and found Q and Dae already looking at you both, you waved them over.

"Q! Dae! Why didn't I see both during the hike up?"

"Maybe cause someone wouldn't leave you and your attention was on him mostly." Q murmured to which, luckily you didn't seem to catch what he said as you raised an eyebrow.

Dae nudged Q with his elbow on his stomach, to which Q hissed in a little pain.

"That was so unnecessary!" Dae still kept his smile,

"What he meant was, you seem preoccupied but really we were trailing behind too." He told, his eyes shifting to Minho's for one second when he said preoccupied and you noticed this.

"Well let's all go together for the hike down?"

Minho wanted to protest but he realised it'd probably seem suspicious and knowing how his best friends were, they'd figure it and look into this more than he would like them too.

Plus he wasn't entirely sure why he detested the idea of not being able to be with you only for the hike down.

He hated your guts didn't he? He only just…taught you were too clumsy and stupid, as well as unserious.

At least that was what he kept convincing himself, yet it was far more obvious to everyone around you except yourselves that there was definitely more than just animosity.

And as you began going down the steps, you almost tripped as your leg got caught in a root but lucky for you, there was Minho by your other side, who'd pulled your arm to make sure you didn't fall right on your face.

"Seriously if it weren't for me, you'd probably end up dead by now."

His hand still on your arm, the contact making you feel warmer than you should and for a second your eyes drifted towards his lips as you thought about just how close you were to him.

You pulled away your arm and gulped, nodding at his words nonchalantly as you couldn't get the image of his lips out of your mind, as much as you hated it.

Q and Dae again, shared a look as if silently communicating,

Yep, there's more to this than just animosity.

THE FIFTH TIME.

Frowning at the big red F on your Korean Literature test, you felt like bursting into tears.

Really it wasn't your fault you were bad at adjusting to the language, after all it'd only been a few months since you were taught about it afresh.

Kitty sighed at your frowny face, texting your shared group chat about canceling today's movie night for the time being, your phone on silent since you'd gotten the test.

kitty loml 💗 : guys no movie night today, y/n's not feeling too well :((((

You didn't even notice it but Minho immediately texted in the group chat when he read the message.

minhoe 👹 : what happened????

dae my bae 🥳 : wow look who spawned in this "lame gc" 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

👑 : ohhh he's right tho but srsly what happened? are they alright???

kitty loml 💗 : Korean Lit happened 😶

👑 : Ohhhh yikes.

Kitty set aside her phone and looked back at you before you spoke,

"What am I doing wrong? I'm trying my best and it just seems pointless now." You feel tears of frustration forming as you yanked the paper away because it just seemed like the red mark was taunting you.

"Y/N, you know it's not your fault, Korean is really hard to learn afresh and see your Korean is way better than mine already!"

She tried cheering you up and you just shook your head.

"No Kitty, I've been learning this longer than you have and it's not even helping me at all if this is the end result!" You wiped harshly at the tears that poured out, your voice snapping at the end.

You sighed as you saw Kitty flinch, not in fear but more so in surprise because she didn't expect you to snap, yet she knew everyone had their own days.

Exhaling softy, you spoke "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap, I'll just…I'm going to take a shower to cool down."

Before she could reply, you turned away, walking to your room, before you slammed your door shut harsher than you wished.

👑 : how's the situation?

kitty loml 💗 : wellll they've gone to take a shower now, but they are pretty upset.

👑 : oh that's not great.

minhoe 👹 : wait guys, what flavour of Pocky was their favourite again? Cookies and cream or chocolate?

kitty loml 💗 : y r u asking this out of nowhere and I'm pretty sure it's just plain chocolate.

dae my bae 🥳 : oh wait didn't you read the previous messages? anyways it was a pretty long thing but in short Minho went to the grocery store to get some snacks for Y/N cause he's "sure" they haven't eaten yet because of how 'forgetful" they are

👑 : code for comfort snacks for an upset y/n to make them feel better because i care but won't admit it.

minhoe 👹 : gosh you all are do fuckinf annoying

kitty loml 💗 : and you are so fucking whipped

👑 : oop pretty sure i can see him blushing all the way from here

dae my bae 🥳 : he just cussed out loud and now we're getting glared at by some grandma, good going minHOE 👹

slayest of the slayers 🙏 : lol

👑 : OMGFJZJZ HIII HELLO R U OKAYY???

kitty loml 💗 : i thought the giggles were me going insane but it was you okay.

slayest of the slayers 🙏 : one way to say i live in ur mind 😈😈 and yes Q, i am fine for now at least, I'll figure out how to conqure this stupid subject somehow.

minhoe 👹 : plzzz it'd be like having a demon in ur head

👑 : YOU shouldn't say that when y/n is probably in ur mind all day and also feel free to message any of us for help when u need it!

You turned off your phone, laughing as you heard the notifications in your group chat blow up.

You'd gotten out of the shower, feeling way better than you had but still just choosing to lay in your bed when you noticed your notifications were piling up.

You giggled when you read through the chats, intervening and feeling your heart at ease when you thought about your friends worrying over you and checking up on you.

You were grateful to have found them, especially considering you were so new and awkward when you joined KISS, thinking you'd never make friends but now you could proudly say you loved them with all you had.

Though as you laid, gazing up at the celing lit up with lights from outside, you thought of one particular person whose actions nowadays made you more confused than anything.

It was Minho, of course.

Lately it seemed he'd taken a place in your mind, ironically having flashbacks to your conversation in the group chat about you occupying his mind but it was more of the opposite on your side.

At least that was what you thought.

You thought over every gesture of his, everytime he seemed to show he cared but then you recalled his harsh words those times and stepped back a bit from your fantasies.

He was too different anyways, a star out of your reach, a boundary you feared to cross, a line that was the more blatant.

So why did your heart feel heavier at the idea of him being out of league?

You gulped when you mentally weighed your options, closing your eyes and thinking of his annoying smirk but even more his annoyingly pretty smile that was rare but when you did see it, it did something to you that made you feel all fuzzy. His annoying hair that always had strands misplaced which you always itched the urged to tuck them back gently, his soft lips, his eyes-

A knock on your door woke you up and you got up putting your hand on your chest.

The pattering in it making it feel like you just ran a whole marathon.

You rose up and quietly walked to your door.

You think you almost puked your guts out of nervousness when you saw who was on the other end.

"You need to check on your messaging skills." You stayed frozen as Minho pushed you aside and entered your room as though he owned the place. It was like something he had that once he entered a room, it naturally became his place.

You noticed he had a bag of something in his hands and you remembered the texts in the group chats.

"Oh wait, did you really?" You asked pointing towards the bag,as he plopped down on your bed, looking at you while rolling his eyes.

"Of course, I know you'd probably starve yourself if you could, that's why I bought something for you." He said and you made your way towards him, a little skeptical and your nerves didn't seem to have calmed.

You sat down beside him, a bit of distance between you two yet you still felt a bit dizzy considering this was probably the first time he'd been in your room.

He pushed the bag towards you, looking at you expectantly.

"Here, it's mostly what you like, as far as I know." You looked through the assortment and indeed, it was like all of your favourites in one.

Your mind couldn't wrap around the fact that it was Minho out of everyone that remembered all your favorite snacks. A little detail but you found it fluttering when someone would remember the smallest things about you. Only this time it felt like your heart would jump out of your chest as you thought about this.

"Well, are you feeling better now?" You snapped your head towards him, nodding absentmindedly.

"Look. Since I am feeling nice, I'll help you out. I can tutor you between 5-7 every Wednesday and Friday at the library. I checked your schedule and saw you were also free those days-"

"Wait what? Where did you even get my schedule???" You genuinely asked confused trying to comprehend his words.

"Out of all that, that's what you want to know?" Rolling his eyes, he crossed his arms "I saw it during the start of the year, to see which classes I'd have to tolerate you in and mentally prepare myself for."

"..." You narrowed your eyes at him suspiciously.

"Oh…Kay?" You said more so questionably, wondering if you'd ever invest your time in someone like that, especially if it were someone you don't like.

He got up to leave, not wanting to embarrass himself more than he thought he did.

"Well uh…I am gonna go now, don't be late! Or I swear I'm never doing anything nice for your dumbass ever again!Don't forget to eat those, seriously I spent money and my precious time in those." He rushed to your door, turning back one last time to you.

"...Just…just next time, ask for help when you need it alright? And it's okay to not do well at times even if you do your best, sometimes it's not your fault." He looked at you expectantly to which you just nodded, still flabbergasted by his actions since he arrived.

He gave one last nod and turned around, slamming the door closed.

What the fuck just happened ?

You asked more so to yourself as you looked the bag in your hands, Minho's words ringing in your head, him offering to tutor you, actually telling you he'd be tutoring you.

Just him. Him and his…kind gestures?

You groaned, setting the bag down beside your bed and falling flat on your bed.

You stared at the ceiling looking for answers for questions you didn't even know about.

And suddenly a sentence rang through your mind.

Gasping loudly as you sat up, wide eyed as an epiphany hit you,

Fuck.

I think I like him.

I like Minho.

THAT ONE TIME.

As a normal person would when they come to be able to identify the confusion and chaos their mind was in and why they were in that state, you did one thing.

Avoid it and the cause of it.

In other words, as a way to deal with the realization of your liking, you decided to just avoid Minho at all costs, at least until it would come to bite you eventually.

You knew your friends noticed your behavior, how you'd basically changed routes and even certain classes, pouring excuses like you couldn't study during that time and it was better to change.

The new revelation caused a lot of changes in the way you saw of his actions. It definitely didn't help when you would recall at the times he'd done them late in the night and it would leave you with a hope that was only growing higher.

Only to come crashing down when you would think about how he might not even see you in the same way, maybe it was just as a friend.

Frenemies.

A term you learnt and as much as you felt like it certainly fit your dynamic, it still left a bitter afterthought that you hated because you knew you wanted more.

Much more.

As you sat down in a cafeteria in Seoul to study, yes you'd gone that far as to avoid studying at the campus just to avoid bumping into Minho.

And to your misfortune,Minho did notice though, how you didn't show up to the library for your planned study session that you'd confirmed but cancelled last minute, how you didn't even reply to messages in the group chat, excuses like you were busy with work and assignments.

He'd scoff when you pulled that excuse, as if you weren't in the same grade and didn't have the same workload. When he would ask Kitty or Q or anyone actually, they'd also have similar answers, not knowing where you were or you were locked in your room most of the time when Kitty would come to ask you for anything.

You felt guilty for avoiding your friends like that, even Minho didn't deserve that especially considering he'd even offered to help you.

With a sigh, you opened your books and tried to study at least until it was near time to go back to your dorms.

[ a few hours later ]

After a somewhat successful study session of you attempting to finish your Korea Lit assignment that'd been eating your brains quite literally as you felt a headache forming when you realized you didn't understand anything, you decided you had enough.

Groaning exhaustedly, you winded up your books and packed them, deciding it was time to just head back, frankly there'd been so much on your mind you were pretty sure that was probably one of the major reasons you didn't understand anything academic related.

Or you were just terrible at Korean Literature and really should have just stepped in your ego and crushed it when Minho offered to help you and gone to his tutoring lessons.

But noo you just had to have an epiphany that you really liked him, in a romantic way that same day he offered.

Deciding you deserved some kind of reward for tolerating and trying at least, you took a little detour to the grocery store that was along the way.

Purchasing a lychee moju moju along with some small snacks to eat, you quickly rushed to head back to campus before Kitty came back to your dorms from the library.

Memorizing her schedule so as to know when to avoid her became a part of your routine, a benefit was it was quite similar to the rest of them so you could also avoid them all at once. At least until you were ready.

Lost in your thoughts, you didn't even notice something in front of you until it was too late.

And when you took a step and a loud hiss followed that scared you so bad,you literally tripped on your own feet and fell straight to the hard concrete, face first.

Luckily you'd been able to divert your face sideways so to make sure there'd be less of an impact on your precious nose.

Now it was your turn to hiss as you groaned, rising on your hands to get up slowly.

The right side of your face was the one that had contact with the ground so it hurt like a fucking bitch when you tried to move.

As you rose up to your feet, you caressed the side of your injured face and winced when you felt something warm and wet.

Sighing exhaustedly when you indeed saw it was blood.

You're such a clumsy ass.

Words unknowingly flashed in your mind, words that a certain someone once told you and back then you were annoyed but now you felt that they really were right.

As much as it hurts your ego to admit that.

Suddenly you saw something small moving in the corner of your eye, the street being lit up only by street lights placed around five meters apart.

As you moved closer, you hoped this wasn't a grave mistake and you were not walking to your own death.

As you removed your phone from your left pocket to flash your flashlight because it had been in an area where the streetlight did not cover the range hence it was sort of dark.

You braced yourself for the worse,

Okay calm down, you can run for it and you'll save your—

Wait.

What?

You deadpanned once you saw what was hidden in the dark.

It was a cat.

A brown and black one and it was caressing its tail, hissing at you once you flashed your phone at it.

You connected the dots and sighed in relief, knowing it wasn't a murderer and it wasn't a trap; rather you had likely stepped on its tail when you didn't notice it in front of you due to its color being less visible in the dark spot.

A sense of guilt crept up on you when you thought about how you must have hurt it, even if it was unintentionally.

Deciding you'd help it, at least by giving it something to eat, you grabbed your grocery bag that sadly laid out splayed out.

Knowing you didn't have anything cat friendly to feed, you pointed at it as if talking to it.

"I'll be back! Stay here."

Turning around and making a second round trip to the grocery store, not even realizing it was nearing dangerously close to your curfew.

You didn't even notice the look of pure concern on the cashier's face, having forgotten your injuries both as a result of adrenaline basically numbing the pain and also you being in a hurry when you noted the time.

Surprisingly the cat was still in its spot, eyes closed and sitting with its head tilted who you knelt down to it.

You opened the can of tuna and your nose scrunched in disgust at the smell, but someone else was delighted as it leaned forward immediately.

Chuckling at the cat's eagerness, you placed it on the ground and it dived right in, devouring the tuna.

"You probably haven't eaten in a while huh?"

Gazing at the cat with sympathy and speaking as if the cat would understand you, you sighed sadly.

As one would when seeing a cat, you moved your hand to pet its head, but just as you were about to touch it, it decided you were the enemy.

Hissing at you, you didn't even get to avoid it when it swiped it's paw at your hand.

It wasn't too deep, but it definitely left a mark and oh it also definitely hurt, burned as well.

You pulled your hand, seeing the scratch mark deep enough to draw blood and once again groaned in pain.

The swipe was right on your fingers, moving across from your index to your pinky.

And it was beginning to bleed fast.

"Wow so you definitely aren't fond of physical affection." Wincing in pain as now it began to burn even more, you moved behind, pushing the can with your uninjured hand.

"Fine fine I'll leave you be." You told it gently, noticing it had retreated behind.

You got up while pressing your palm to the scratched fingers, making sure it wouldn't just began bleeding badly out of nowhere.

Shit I probably don't even have a first aid kit.

Today could not get any worse.

And you probably jinxed that as you looked the wristwatch in your left hand for the time.

8:45 pm

A whole twenty minutes passed curfew.

Fuck, you were so screwed now.

You facepalmed yourself only to almost scream in pain as you accidentally hit the right side of your injured forehead.

Great I probably look like I got beat up.

You began walking as fast as you could, your bag seeming heavier as you'd stuff everything including your grocery into it.

Please please please let the advisor not be there right now for checking.

As you reached the gates, you sighed in relief seeing they were still open but slowed down to see if there were any guards around.

It felt like you were suddenly thrown into a secret mission, one to avoid getting caught and possibly getting a suspension for being out so late.

Your wound had stopped bleeding profusely when you'd pulled the sleeve of your sweater over it, engulfing your hand completely.

It pained you to ruin that sweater but you could just buy a new one, hopefully.

Hiding behind a streetlight that was a few meters away from the gatez you scanned your surroundings ahead.

You could almost hear the James Bond theme music playing in your head.

You didn't spot any guards around and the gate was open, so you did the one thing only a true spy could possibly dare to do.

Make a run for it.

Ducking your head down and using the sleeve of your sweater to cover your face, you ran as fast as you could inside, trying to make as minimal noise as you could.

That was not the case when the grovel beneath crunched as you made a run for it and you cussed at yourself internally, praying no one was around.

Lucky for you, your dorm was nearer to the entrance and you felt like bursting out in tears of joy when you neared the building.

Running up the steps, you paid no mind to anyone around you.

"Wait, is anyone still out?! It's almost nine come on guys!"

Eyes widening when you realized you made a grave mistake assuming no one was in the hallways, you turned the opposite direction of your room as footsteps began nearing.

Shit, I need to hide.

Being in this crisis was possibly the worst rotten cherry on top of your nightmarish sundae.

Suddenly, you registered this wasn't your hallway, heck you'd entered the wrong building in a moment of stupidity.

This was the boys dorm building when you noticed the familiar numbers.

Wait a minute.

Your eyes scanned for a number you'd seen countless times by now as you slowly but quickly moved ahead. The footsteps had gotten slow and you knew Alex was in the other hallway, probably looking for who was around.

Grinning when the familiar number was on the door, you didn't think much and just knocked harshly.

"Q! It's Y/N, I'll explain everything but please I'll get caught if you don't open right now!"

Whispering harshly into the door in a panicky tone, you knocked rapidly making sure it wasn't too loud.

You were sure your heart almost dropped out of your chest when you heard the footsteps approaching your direction again.

Your hand dropped to your side as you looked in the direction of Alex heading and you didn't even realize the door had already opened.

You almost yelped so loudly when you felt a tug on your arm pulling you inside. The grip on your arm was strong enough to just drag you inside and you closed your eyes out of fear.

You were pinned behind the door, your back pressing into it as a large hand covered your hand to prevent the yelp out of your mouth. The person's other hand was on your waist to prevent you from falling straight to the ground.

You listened closely to the footsteps and sighed in temporary relief when they passed the dorm.

Only now did you grimace in pain,the hand on your mouth unknowingly hurting the injuries on your face,you reached your hand to tug it out of your face.

The person immediately backed away the moment you grimaced, it was so quick as if they'd been burnt by you. You almost fell over as you'd lean your entire weight on them.

"What the actual fuck happened to you?"

A familiar voice asked in both astonishment and even a hint of anger.

Your eyes were still shut, collecting yourself before you opened them as you relaxed briefly.

You had to blink twice when you noticed who was in front of you.

"Oh…it's you." You murmured, looking anywhere else but at Minho the moment you perceived it was him the whole time.

He scanned your entire face, obviously noticing the blood as well as the bruise, as his eyes lowered, he also saw the blood on your sweater sleeve, your hand now free and the visible marks bleeding once again from being exposed to sudden movement.

When he first heard you, he'd been laying on the couch scrolling on his phone, bored because Q had chosen to spend the night at Florian's, having the place to himself for tonight.

He swore he felt his heart drop when he heard you panicking tone on the other side and didn't even care if it was the first time he'd seen in two weeks of nothing, he pulled you in and when he heard you almost yell, he just placed his palm to shut you up as he heard the footsteps pass by.

He didn't mean to scare you but at the moment, all he could really think about was who even or what even happened to you.

"Who did this to you?" His tone seemed aggressive as he questioned in a deeper voice than usual. Well usual was also deep but it was something you got used to.

You'd become frozen the moment he spoke, not knowing what to say, a little embarrassed at how you ended up in this situation. He stepped forward, straightening up instinctively in alarm.

His eyebrows furrowed in question as he pushed his tongue to the side, lowering his head to your level, now near eye level with you, your eyes following his every movement.

You tried not to flinch too harshly when he grazed his fingertips on your cheek and lip, where you'd gotten hurt as well as the place near you eye and eyebrow.

"Uh, so like you see, it looks worse than what actually happened so really it isn't too big of a deal—"

Stepping back a bit, he looked at you ridiculously

"Not too big of a deal ?!" He questioned as if daring you to say it again,

"You must be kidding me right now." He laughed humorlessly as he ran his hand through his hair and you tried not to stare like an idiot.

And as cliche as it could be getting, you felt light headed as you tried to keep your balance. Blinking harshly to keep your eyes open, you almost fell forward when you took a step but this time Minho was able to catch you in time.

"Hey, hey, don't faint on me right now okay? Let's just get you seated first."

You leaned your weight on him as he held you with one arm, he'd move beside you to make you comfortable as he slowly walked you to the couch. Before he laid you down, he removed your bag from your shoulders and put it aside, to make sure you'd be able to lay more properly.

You sighed in both relief and exhaustion when you finally sat down.

"Wait I'll be back."

He recalled the first aid kit he had in his drawer and went to get it as soon as he could.

You shut your eyes, tiredness overwhelming you, not only from the adrenaline high getting over but also from the mental exhaustion that'd you'd been having since the whole mess.

You opened your eyes when you felt a weight beside you, Minho sitting down with a first aid kit in his hand.

He opened it to remove a bottle of hydrogen peroxide that made you scrunch your nose a little in disgust at the color and some cotton pads, band-aids, and a roll of bandage.

You noticed they were hello kitty ones, the same ones you used and that thought made you smile even for a brief moment.

"You really got this ones too?" You asked softly and Minho turned to look at you, looking at the band aids in awe and snorted at your expression.

"You are here, almost on the verge of passing out but you are questioning whether I have the same hello kitty band aids you have? And to answer your question, yes."

"Gotta keep those priorities in check."

He rolled his eyes as he soaked the cotton pad with the hydrogen peroxide, the familiar deep brown color showing.

He gently took your hand and began to clean the wound.

Hissing loudly, you sat more straight about to pull away but he still kept the grip on your arm.

"It's okay, it'll hurt a bit, just hold on for a sec." Minho gently said to you as he focused on cleaning it, laying your hand on your lap and taking another cotton pad when the current one got used enough.

As much as you wanted to cuss out loud, you decided to put your focus elsewhere, choosing his face was the perfect place for that.

His eyes were as soft as his touch, you didn't think he'd be this gentle with you but here you were, him tending to your wounds, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as his jaw was unknowingly clenched in the same focus.

"Sorry." You blurted out of nowhere, the guilt from everything piling up one by one, from the fact that you'd been ignoring him for two weeks only to show up after and him having to tend to your injuries when he could have just kicked you out.

He briefly made eye contact with you, wiping the now cleaner cuts with a dry cotton pad, and opening the kit again to remove a tube of antibiotic ointment.

The coolness of the ointment made you almost breath out of relief but you were still tense because Minho hadn't said anything yet.

"I get that you must be…angry with me. It's reasonable but I have my own reasons, I think they are pretty valid if you want to hear them out?" 

You finished, your throat closing up afterwards and you felt like you'd pass out from how fast your heart began beating.

"How did you get injured like this? First, tell me that." He finally spoke, wrapping a sterile white bandage around your fingers after the ointment.

He carefully finished wrapping and tied a knot, making sure it wasn't too tight as he looked at you questionably, to which you shook your head.

"It's stupid. Really." 

"I know you're stupid but—"

"I fell." You let the cat out of the bag and diverted your gaze, his movements pausing to process your words as if he heard wrong.

"Don't lie to me. Did someone bully you and beat you up—"

"I was coming to the dorms from my "study" session at the cafe that's like twenty minutes away from here, when I went to the grocery store for…stuff. And after I got what I needed, I was heading here and I was uh…preoccupied with something that I didn't see what was infront of me, so I stepped on it and then I tripped on my own feet and next thing I know my face was kissing the ground, then when—"

"You're telling me this was all because of your clu—"

"LET ME FINISH!" 

Minho shut up after that and pressed his lips into a thin line while you continued,

"As I was saying, I couldn't see what it was and it already hid in the dark when I flashed my phone's light, I saw it was a cat and then I felt bad for stepping on its tail, I went back and got some tuna for it at the store, I gave it to her but I think she was still upset so when I went to pet her, she scratched my fingers, which is why my hand is also injured."

"And oh, I ended up here by accident because I entered your dorm building while I was making a run for it and realized it too late, I didn't want to get caught so I thought of just asking whether I could hide in your dorm until the advisors stopped their rounds."

You breathed out heavily, your chest hurting from the lack of oxygen for saying all that in one go but you didn't want to embarrass yourself by thinking too much about it and just wanted to let it all out in go.

You moved your gaze back to Minho's when you noticed how quiet he'd gotten afterwards, having been looking somewhere else when telling how you got in this situation.

Narrowing your eyes at him suspiciously, he averted his gaze elsewhere while you scanned his expression.

"You can laugh if you want to." Sighing you finally said and that seemed to work as Minho laughed at you.

You deadpanned him as he spoke in between his laughing "You are really the biggest klutz I have known, I mean all this all because of a cat?!"

Rolling your eyes, you lightly frowned and Minho noticing this, began calming down,

"Okay, Okay I won't laugh, I'm sorry." He breathed out as he cleared his throat and looked at you, biting his bottom lip to stop the giggles as he saw your expressions.

"Are we done here? I have to go back to my room too—"

"I haven't even treated your face yet!" 

Now it was your turn to shut up and you slightly pouted at his scolding tone, 

"As hilarious as your little story is…you need to be more careful. Like this is kinda crazy to get hurt like this by just falling."

"Okay, mum got it." You mocked him and he glared at you, pressing the soaked cotton pad onto your cheek out of nowhere.

"YOU BITCH! WARN SOMEONE NEXT TIME—"

"You should have already known—"

"You KNOW WHAT FUCK YO—"

He ignored you as he continued to clean up your wound, your words being replaced with quite literally having to bite your tongue to control the hisses of pain.

"Now, now please shut up and stay still." 

You wanted to cuss at him again, claiming this was abuse but the look on his face challenged you to dare to pipe up again.

Instead, you just sighed in exhaustion, letting him finish his unnecessary kind act that was again questionable if it were out of his supposed kindness or convenience.

"Now there, all done." He placed the final hello kitty band-aid on your lip corner gently and you wished you could smile but that felt like a terrible idea as you remembered that even lifting up the corner of your right side made a sharp pain shoot up your lip.

"Thank you…I guess." You murmured softly to which a smug smile formed on his face, 

"I didn't hear you, could you please repeat that for me?" He pretended to be in thought of what you said when he clearly heard you due to your proximity.

You rolled your eyes, crossing your arms and swallowing down the bitter taste on your tongue, having to put your ego down a little at this point.

"I said." 

"Thank you for this. Thank you for…helping me. Even when you didn't need to." 

Even if you couldn't see it because you'd been looking elsewhere but him, he had a tiny smile on his face as he watched you.

"Anytime clumsy idiot, if it weren't me to handle your clumsy ass, then who?" 

It was probably meant as a joke, maybe a taunt even but your heart took it in a different way as you felt the familiar butterflies flutter.

"Minho seriously stop it, you shouldn't just say things like that." 

He'd begun winding up the first aid kit and the extra stuff that was there, when he heard you say that under your breath, which made him stop his task.

"Things like what?" He faced you now, his body in your direction as you froze up.

"Oh you know what I mean…stuff that can be taken into….a different context by…people." You awkwardly said, trying to dodge your way out of what you actually meant.

"Do enlightenment me, you know about the context of this." He leaned in closer to you, a smirk forming on his face and you frowned, gulping thinking of what to say next.

"Uhm…well." Biting your lip in thought, the floor seemed like a better place to focus at.

Minho's eyes softened at that, deciding he'd rather not tease you more.

"You know, I still don't get why you have been ignoring me for two weeks. Actually, everyone for two weeks." He blurted out what he really wanted to ask since he'd been able to talk to you properly after this long.

"At first, I thought that maybe you were busy but after the first 4-5 days, I figured you'd been purposefully avoiding me." He said as he looked down and you could feel the guilt creeping up all over again.

"Look. What is something I did?" He asked you with a tone of regret looking at you to see if your expression would reveal anything and as you held eye contact, what made you snap was the sincerity in them.

"No! No, it's not you…well, it is about you but not because of you? It's me though! I am the problem here." Staring at him got too much so you just decided to stand up and avoid looking at him when you spoke. The proximity was also getting to your head and the musky yet expensive smell he wore was suddenly so strong it made you dizzy.

You began racing back and forth in that small space, as you thought of how to explain and you didn't even grasp you'd been rambling the whole time, your hands moving in gestures as actions to your words.

"I sort of just noticed something about me and it got a lot since I never really felt like that way and it's crazy because it is also unexpected—"

Minho stood up and stood in front of you, holding you by your shoulders, genuine concern on his face when he scanned your distressed look.

"Okay calm down, if you don't feel comfortable explaining anything right now, you can just rest and you can tell when you do feel like it."

"No."

He raised an eyebrow at your answer and you continued,

"I think… I want to say it." 

He dropped his hands from your shoulders, letting them rest by his sides as you looked into his eyes.

For that moment, you just now perceived how close you were to him, taking in how handsome he truly was, you never admitted it but it was very obvious.

Your eyes momentarily paused on his lips, maybe looking at them for longer than one should and before you could trail your gaze lower to the dip of his throat in his hoodie, you paused at his Adam's apple that bobbed up and down as he swallowed.

Even though he'd been the one who got close to you like this, Minho still felt a little nervous when you looked up at him like the way you were right now.

"Turn around." You ordered before you could even think about it and confusion flooded his face.

"I won't be able to say it while looking at you so please."

Pausing for a brief second, he turned on his heel now facing the greenish bluish wall.

"You know if you want to confess to a murder, you don't need to be afraid, I'll help you hide—"

"I think I'm in love with you." You exclaimed, ignoring his words as you stared at the back of his head.

He was not that taller than you, just by a few inches or so but it was just the right height.

Immediately, you noticed him shut up and tense up as his shoulders straightened.

"I personally never thought it'd be you out of all people but fuck, it's not like your heart lets you decide who you should fall in love with." You tugged at the uninjured hand's sleeve while you used your other to brush your hair behind your ear.

"As cheesy as that sounds. I don't know when it happened or how it happened but I do know when I knew. It was when you bought food for me when I was upset and it was everything I liked. Or maybe it was when despite being cold yourself, you'd offered me your sweater and gosh you just know how to pull at one's strings don't you?"

"I'll admit though, I was annoyed by you and your…attitude and I still will be but it's just that, crazily enough I think that's just one of the reasons I fell for you."

"You're many things Minho, stupid, annoying as fuck, bitchy at times as well, but you're also sweet and caring when you want to be. And now I am just rambling at this point so I'll just shut up."

You pressed your lips into a thin line, the ground a great place to put your attention, your cheeks warming up and you swore you felt like you'd faint then and there.

It was like the atmosphere took a change after your confession and momentary rant. A lingering silence that felt loud and you really didn't know what to think.

Can I die at this moment right now? Dropping dead sounds so tempting.

"..."

"...can I uh…turn around now? To you know…talk?" He asked, scratching the back of his neck nervously your eyes snapped to him, widening when you recalled that he was still facing the wall.

Groaning at the fact that you forgot he was not facing you, you coughed out awkwardly,

"Yeah! Of course…you can."

You held your breath as you waited for him to turn around, and when he did, you couldn’t even look at him.

Minho honestly didn’t know what to think, say or do.

Because what can you say after the person you’ve been pining over since the past few months suddenly confessed their apparently reciprocated love to you?

He thought he’d been doing a decent job hiding his feelings so he doesn’t need to face the brutal rejection fear we all get when we have a crush on our supposed ‘enemy’. But it got harder for him as time went by, and soon enough he found himself completely head over heels for you.

Taking his obvious silence as your answer, your heart grew heavier at the lack of response and you spoke up, breaking the blanket of quietness.

“I suppose you don’t feel the same way so I should probably just go anyways it’s getting late, just…forget I said anything-”

You began to slowly take a few steps back, making sure you wouldn’t fall and injure yourself again,

Minho’s head sharply turned towards you as his eyes widened in alarm, “Wait! You didn’t even let me say anything!”

Pausing in your steps before you could swiftly turn for the door and exit as quick as you could, now a sheepish look on your face as you saw his slightly annoyed and alarmed look.

“Well, I just assumed your silence was an answer?”

He crossed his arms now a few feet away from you as he was already making his way towards you.

“There you go again with you and your assumptions! You really should let someone speak at least.” He sighed rubbing the gap between his brows with his index finger.

He moved closer to you, now only an arm's length away from you, “Look at me, please?”

You had to raise your head a little to look him in the eyes and you felt like you could get lost in them, one hand was on your side, clenched in a fist out of nervousness.

“Who said I didn’t feel the same?” He asked so casually as if asking for your name and you could only gape at him at the implications.

“Because I definitely know that,” He gulped as he looked down at you, feeling like his heart might just jump out of his chest at what he was about to say.

“I am in love with you, maybe a little or by a whole lot. A whole lot I swear I can feel my heart jump just at your presence. I didn’t say anything because honestly, I thought this was another dream I was having, I had to pinch myself to make sure. But I do feel the same, possibly more than you ever will.” 

Your jaw might as well have been on the floor at his unexpected confession, frankly, yours was also something you didn’t think you were going to say, but you said it because you couldn’t keep it in you anymore.

“Hold on, what do you mean by another dream?” You narrowed your eyes at him suspiciously, deciding to mess around with him but in reality, you were soaring and your heart probably long leaped out of you in pure euphoria.

“Out of all that, you picked up on only that?!? Did you just- just completely dismiss the fact that I am in love with you as well?!”

Giggling at his expression, you couldn’t contain your happiness as he fell for your joke and once he realised that he glared at you half-heartedly,

“You think you’re so funny huh? Do you even know how hard it was for me to say that? I almost fainted for fucks sake!”

You laughed even more at that, having to hold your stomach with one hand as you leaned forward and at the sound of your laughter, his own smile he’d been trying to control showed as he rolled his eyes at you, shaking his head.

“You seriously know how to make a guy have a heart attack.” 

At this, you looked up at him stepping even closer as you bopped his nose,

“But you literally just confessed to being in love with me and you can’t take back what you said now.”

A comical squeak arose from you as he wrapped his arms around your waist out of nowhere pulling you closer, gently moving your injured hand on his shoulder to make sure you didn’t get hurt and you moved your other one around his neck.

It wasn’t like he’d never touched you, but still, the spark of electricity shooting through your entire body didn’t change one bit and it felt the same for him as the warmth radiating from you seemed to engulf him as well.

Staring at him, your eyes trailed to his lips and you moved closer, wanting to just,

Before you could even close the distance, you felt a finger on your lips and heard him whisper to you,

“No, no, you can’t kiss me right now, as much as I want to, you first need to let this heal.” He tenderly poked the right corner of your lip where you’d forgotten you were hurt at the moment.

Pouting slightly at that, Minho chuckled and before you could whine, he swiftly leaned forward and pecked your lips, lingering for a second before pulling back,

“That’s all you get, for now.” Sighing you just nodded, knowing it was for the best.

“You know you still have to make up to me for ignoring me for two weeks, I mean not only me but I’m sure Kitty’s ready to kick your ass as well, I heard she was planning to threaten to burn  your giraffe socks if you didn’t talk to her.”

Suddenly a realisation hit you when you remembered something,

“IS THAT WHY I CAN’T FIND THEM SINCE THE PAST TWO DAYS?!?”

“...I suppose she’s already executed her plan.”

all written works as well as images and edits (unless credited) belong to pri. do not plagiarise, repost, re-edit or claim as yours. pics mostly found on pinterest.

writingmeraki Ⓒ 2023

links : main navigation !

[mistysconcilium]

a scary movie

day 2 of seven days of halloween .ᐟ 👻

paring - alive!tate langdon x reader

synopsis - you go to the movies to watch a scary movie with tate

tags - drabble • fluff • maybe ooc tate • mention of characters in movie getting killed • english is not my first language

୨୧ note - i really enjoyed writing and editing this so i hope you will like it too !! this is my first tate fic so if he is ooc i apologize. hope you enjoy . ᐟ

“Do you want to share one large popcorn or should we have like two mediums for ourselves?”

“We could share one,” Tate replied while he put all the candy he had gathered on the counter in front of the cashier.

“Okay, so one large popcorn and these candy’s” the cashier at the movie theatre recounted, “What do you guys want to drink?”

“A large coke please” Tate chimed in right behind you.

“Two large cokes” you said to the cashier.

She nodded. After you paid and got all your snacks you and Tate walked to the salon to try to find your seats.

“This our row I think and our seats should be..,” after taking another look at the tickets and looking at the seats numbers you finally found them; “right here!” you continued, turning around and smiling at Tate behind you who were carrying all of your snacks in both his arms.

When you both had sat down Tate handed you your part of the candy and your drink, but he kept your shared popcorn bucket in between his thighs.

The commercials started and during a weird one you looked over at Tate to whisper a joke about it in his ear but when you looked over you saw something shocking!

Tate had already eaten like a fourth of the popcorn in the bucket! Only a few minutes into the commercials and he had eaten that much? You quickly grabbed the bucket from him.

”Hey, what are you doing?” he reaches out to grab some more popcorn but you smack his hand away.

”You've already eaten a lot” you glare at him trying to look mad.

Tate just laughs at your attempt to look mad. “Shhhh” you put your hand over his mouth to quiet him down “the movie‘s starting” you add in a whisper.

The movie was just some random badly made horror movie. You couldn’t even remember the name of it. You and Tate had just decided to watch it to get in a halloween mood since it was October.

The movie barely had a plot, just some excessive bad gore and a weird looking supernatural killer. But regardless you still got scared at one point.

“AH” some popcorn fell from the bucket in your lap onto the floor because of your reaction to the jumpscare on screen.

You could hear Tate chuckling at your reaction. “You are also going to get scared at one point y’know” you whispered to him. “I live in the murder house” he responded mockingly, “I’m not gonna get scared by a stupid movie”

The movie continued. Several people got killed on screen. You could tell the movie makers wanted to make it look scary and terrifying but it just ended up being funny. Right before the end of the movie, during a jumpscare, you notice someone slightly jumping in their chair from the corner of your eye. Tate had gotten scared? Tate, who lives in the murder house, had gotten scared!

“You totally got scared at the end” you chuckled while holding Tate’s hand when you were walking out of the movie theater.

“I did not” Tate responded just looking straight ahead.

“Yes, you totally did!” you say in a lighthearted tone, “You just don’t wanna admit it because you want to be all cool and cold-hearted” you laugh.

Tate didn’t respond, he just shaked his head trying to suppress a smile. You could tell you were right based on his reaction.

“Don’t worry I still think you are cool” You smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

love, elisabet <3

taglist (not everyone bc idk who likes tate); @fear-is-truth @d3adarling

reblogs and comments are always appreciated . ᐟ

dividers by @/strangergraphics

[bugsnakes]

do you have any shrimpo hcs youve never had an excuse to share. sniles

get ready for this

Im actually making this a keep reading thing becauze i have So much to share. Like right now (i never get opportunities to share shit like Ever)

OKAY. SO. These hcs all reside to the shrimpo design i have (assuming the people reading this knows what it looks like by now. If not ill attach it at the bottom for your Itty bitty Eyes)

said in a previous post which i will Not be linking. he EXTREMELY Hates walking around in either his prosthetic leg/crutches. He'd prefer if someone helps him move around instead of himself (hint hint)

speaking of his prosthetic leg, he doesn't actually HAVE one (like attachment wise), only a blade runner. although he complains about it, shrimpo doesnt have the faintest of heart to get one. So shrimpo is usually seen with his blade runner off. he finds the blade runner annoying (pick a side shrimp boy. Do u wanna walk or not)

with his little whiskers.. antennas. Things. whatever you describe them; he often likes to poke toons/walls/whatever else to get a feel of it. Texture! yknow? shrimpo does have hands, yes, but i feel like the antennas would be more of a help to navigate stuff because theyre more sensitive-like (isnt that the purpose of the whiskers on a shrimp anyway..?? Idk beats me LOL)

ONE MORE THING. Shrimpo DESPISES the feeling of bandages. he already knows its mandatory to keep them on since he's already a main target for injuries, but he constantly has this feeling to rip them off right there and now. This is why he doesnt have bandages wrapped around the Gigantic gash on his Arm

GOING OFF OF THE DESIGN TOPIC,

"saamm!! Does he still have his canon personality i need to know!!!!" yes he does actually. THOUGH. Regardless if everybody else hates his guts (in which hes aware of that) he does actually try to maintain his anger. even if a few words slip out or he's still rude to others, he still tries to have a normal conversation with toons instead of constantly going "I HATE THIS." "I HATE THAT!!". Hating can be tiring sometimes!!

on a lighthearted side, and something i think is kinda funny as a shrimpo hc. He's a big hoarder. Like. He'd always keep anything he sees On Sight. Trinkets, foods, medkits or bandages. You name it!! i like to think shrimpo is a penguin pebbler too. he doesn't like sharing, but he does like to give things or necessary equipment to toons he likes being with... AGAIN. Only necessary stuff!!!

Annddd finally. to my eyes. Hes a raging aroacer. he cant reciprocate love, and even if he does like someone (hi boxten), he'll brush it off as platonic. He is rough with his kisses, nuzzles and hugs.... LOL!

THANK U SO MUCH FOR ASKING THIS VRO. Words genuinely cannot describe how happy i am to finally ramble about my favourite toon crustacean... I am tipping my hat rn. Flying away into the heavensAnyway

i might add more in the future. If i feel silly enough hehe

HEREESS SHRIMPOOO!!! MY DESIGNN!! THE PROSTHETIC LEG GUY!!

[guppyfish77]

Another year Another summary of Art! An Entire Year of Submas lets gooooooooooo!!!! This year I feel like I really pushed myself when it comes to illustrations and I feel like I've learned a lot! But at the same time I feel a little tired, next year I think I wanna relax and experiment a bit more, I gotta learn to loosen up! Might get more art out if I do :p

I also feel the Submas grip ever so lightly relaxing (unless they decide to do Unova remakes haha XD), so I might introduce some of my numerous ocs in 2024! I'll probably start with the conductor oc ;]

Thank you for all your support! (you are all very nice! ToT), I still have a good amount of submas stuff planned in the works so look forward to that (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

If you are interested, I also have some commentary and behind the scenes for some of my submas illustrations! I wanna talk about it and now seems like a good time to do so now that the year is over! (Beware! its going to be long!)

All titles are linked to the original post

Lunch Break

hoho! This one is the sort of AU thing in which the only thing that changes is that I give Emmet a Victini friend (not a part of his team, I dubbed them the "victory duo" because Emmet likes winning and Victini is the Victory Pokemon), I planned out a few wordless comics regarding the idea, they were all very lighthearted slice of life kind of stuff, usually Victini causing some mischief and the brothers having to deal with it

and here's the thumbnails for this piece! I played around with various angles but decided to keep it simple and choose a straight on angle. It was originally a snack break and Emmet sharing a granola bar with Victini, but as I was planning it, submas unexpectedly showed up in the Pokemon Anime where they were serving ekiben, after learning about it it quickly turned into a lunch break! (how fun when new information lines up with an art piece you are working on hoho! ^ ^) After studying what foods Ekiben usually have in them (there was quite a variety!) I took what I learned and try to make the food look like the gear station logo :D

In the background there are children drawings because in the battle subway one of the trainer classes you can face off against are preschoolers, and I thought at least one of them would share their drawings with the subway bosses (and of course why wouldn't they hang it up?), there is also a trophy in which you can get in the players room if you beat the subway bosses on the super trains (one day, battling competitively is not my forte), I did my best to make Emmet's office feel lived in by adding a little bit of clutter (like adding a note) but overall very organized

(hey hey that joltik mug looks familiar in the corner there, its the same one Rei is holding in the christmas drawing)

Bonus Emmet and Victini Drawings

aw come on dude, not on the trains!

ah this one, it gave me quite a bit of frustration! This piece I used to challenge myself on perspective, and challenge me it did! The version you see now is I believe the 6th iteration of this drawing! The reason for restarting so many times is because I originally wanted it to be in 3 point perspective, but I couldn't get it to look right so its now in 2 point... Haha Some valuable lessons learned there!

This illustration was inspired by the history of New York Subway Trains and Graffiti! I read about it when I got to visit the New York Transit Museum and found it super interesting!! Then I went I gotta do something with this! Since Unova is based in New York after all!

I got so many subway surfer comments, they don’t know I forgot subway surfers existed while making this and that I am a huge nerd lmao

I had a lot of fun designing the graffiti on the train (yes it says among us) stylizing the fictional letters was so fun! I studied some graffiti to see how they do it, I could've pushed the graffiti style more but then it would be illegible! I also mixed in elements of Grafaiai graffiti, and trainer that is running away is the artist trainer class in SCVL because they are graffiti artists! And the train that got graffitied is the Wifi Train, due to BW (and the DS) servers being shut down, I doubt that train gets used much anymore, which makes it a perfect target!

Derailed!

hohoho! This was a fun one! I'm not sure how many of you guys read my tags, but in there I did state that this piece was based off the fact that model trains are powered by electrifying the rail it runs on (very low watts mind you) and the fact that Joltik eats electricity, but thats not the only inspiration, it was also inspired by those videos of cats laying on the layout and derailing the train!

Theres quite a variety of thumbnails for this idea (including a comic!), and the idea was there in 2022, but this year I decided to fully commit to it! I started rendering the top right one and almost finished it, but it felt really boring to me, so I switched it up and made some thumbnails in a new perspective and viola! thats what ended up being finished!

The train that is being derailed are Sanriku Railway Type 36s, based off a model train I have in my collection! (While sharing this fact on the original post Haiku Bot detected it as a Haiku?! and this art went out of my target audience, that certainly was a day (⊙□⊙;))

Also I straight up put a picture of Thomas the Tank Engine in the background, I'm not sure if people noticed cuz its quite blurry, the fact that nobody said anything means I probably would’ve gotten away with it before sharing this fact, so hehe :3c

Unexplained Melancholy

eyy! this one! It started out wholly different

It was originally me dropping Warden Ingo in various natural landscapes around Hisui as I didn't feel like drawing anymore linear perspective (ah, but heres the thing, all environments require a little bit of perspective lol), and it was just going to be Warden Ingo hanging out in a lush forest, specifically by the train rock that was shown in his concept art! but after sitting on it, I realized I could do something more with it! by making it a snowy environment I could make callbacks to Emmet's coat being white! hence the "SNOWY!!!" being scribbled there, that was added like weeks afterwards, Then I realized I could push it even more by making the whole environment about Emmet's colors! So the new thumbnail is in color because thats whats its about!

The moon smile thing was stumbled on by complete accident, while working on it it felt empty there and I added Emmet's smile to fill the space before going "moon!!!"

The piece is also a sort of a parallel to last years piece “I am Emmet, I wish for Ingo and I to be a two-car train once more” composition wise, sort of, I tried to at least 👍

Black Tower and Whitetree Hollow

Ah! I was quite proud of this one! Black City and White Forest are some of my favorite places in Unova mainly because the parallels are so very cool!

As the thumbnails suggest it was all going to be in complete black and white, as I was working on it though I could not help but add some values in there so yup! I quite like both compositions but the perspective won me out, plus that one focuses more on the characters than the other one (as much as I love backgrounds, it really is supposed to be about Emmet and Ingo U_U)

Being places of duality and having a battle challenge in there, it really fit them!

Emmet drops the hottest single of all time 🔥🔥🔥

Not really much to say about this one since it was very much done on a whim, but

its not the first time I drew Emmet with his hat backwards, I did this little doodle around the same time I did the train graffiti piece, been wanting to do something with this silly idea, and when I heard that audio, I went :o

Following Some Rumors of a Time Machine

the finale! I decided to choose Area Zero because its a very cool place! I am inspired by cool places! and I decided to give it my all for this one!

The thumbnail I made was more for jotting down the idea, and the landscape was going to be more eyelevel? Later I decided to make it so you were looking down into the crater and you get to see the fog blocking the crystal caverns, to show that Emmet was going deeper into Area Zero and the Deepest part is his destination (the time machine, not the underdepths, I didn't know about that yet haha!) I was always going to make Emmet encounter a Slither Wing, with it being based off Volcarona, a gen 5 pokemon :]

Anyways, That's all I have to say! I hope you found it interesting! (and enjoyed my varying quality in sketches and thumbnails XD) Thanks for listening! see you in 2024! ✌

[way2gosuperrstarr]

hi hi secret skeleton here!

was curious about your au! what's the relationship of Sunday and the DCAs? And the DCAs with each other? platonic? romantic? something else? and could you tell me more about their personalities? and any other cool lore you wanna share is welcome! haha sry lots of questions, i wanna get the vibe of all your characters :D

love ur art btw <3

!! hello !! staring at you intently..... who are you i wonder........

and don't worry about too many questions! they're always welcome i love to yap about my little guys c:

sunday and the dca have a slightly . weird relationship i guess? it's something something romantic but i don't know if i'd fully define it as such? but i'd definitely say it leans more into romantic territory than it does platonic. uhhh they kiss each other and stuff.

sunday and sun have a sort of enemies-friends relationship? (in a lighthearted way.) they would kill each other, probably. it's complicated. they bully each other, especially sun with sunday. with moon though, sunday's pretty friendly, if not a little intimidated by him at first. sunday spends more time with moon technically since it's on nightshift. they do actually have a pretty good relationship. moon likes to shadow sunday during their shifts, and when sunday hangs out in the daycare they tend to spend time with sun since the lights are on. sun and sunday banter a lot.

the dca are all very close :) specifically moon and sun; they've always had each other through out everything that's ever happened to them. they've always known they can rely on the other and it'd take a lot to tear them apart. i don't think eclipse is as close to the other two as they are to each other. i don't think eclipse has been around for a long time. and when he was around, it kinda wasn't as a "third" to the group? it was more of like a replacement type deal? honestly i'm still trying to figure out how eclipse factors into all of this stuff because i had a lot already done before he was revealed ,,, but he doesn't by any means have a bad relationship with the others when he is present. they're all very amicable with each other!

sunday's very awkward, it got this job in the first place to NOT interact with other people. and these robots are.... way too human like it's starting to feel way too much like what it was trying to avoid. they have pretty bad anxiety disorder and are very shy. they're also a bit impulsive during stressful situations, especially if someone else is at risk. brain stops working. they blank a lot. they enjoy wasting time on their shifts once they get all their assigned cleaning and p&s tasks done, sometimes they'll stop in the daycare during these times. they share their work schedule with the dca so they know when sunday will or won't be at the pizzaplex and so they won't waste time looking for it. sunday also has a short temper. they actively try to be the kindest person they caj be and positive but they often have pretty negative thought patterns.

sun is very talkative, animated, and expressive. he talks with his hands a lot with grand gestures and little "acts" to go along with what he's talking about. sun is a more "jester's privilege" jokes and japes kind of guy. he has a very short fuse, especially when the virus is active, and loses his temper in very loud, but very short, bursts. he and sunday get into arguments because of this a lot! he loves to jingle all his bells but he can keep them all perfectly silent if he wants to, as can moon. sun enjoys crafts and singing! he's not very good at singing, but he has a keen eye for art. he actually really enjoys painting. he's not too bad at landscapes.

moon is very quiet, reserved, and mischievous. moon does NOT talk very much. most of what he's saying is conveyed through his hands motions and body language. it speaks very few words. moon loves pranks! it mainly pulls pretty harmless pranks, small ones, but they do begin to ramp up with the virus. of course. moon likes to sing and make music, and unlike sun, is actually pretty good at it! it really enjoys lullabies. moon spends a lot of time with music man learning music. djmm tends to adjust the music he's making when moon's around to suit it's tastes a little better.

eclipse, once again, is...... a bit hard for me to grasp,,. i'd see them as joyful, sing-songy, and kind. i also get a pretty clear image of jevil in my head when i think about him? really his chaos! chaos! i can do anything! line. i still struggle with how i want to perceive eclipse but i'd say my vision of him would align closer to canon than fanon. i do not like fanon balloon world eclipse very much. I AM A HATER !!!!! (lighthearted)

[blametheeditor]

Voretober Day 15 | Urgent

Voretober Prompt List

First | Previous | Next

If given the opportunity, would you take the chance to go to space and travel the stars? What if the person offering to take you was someone you trusted more than anyone else?

What if that person is no longer entirely human?

MENTIONS OF SOFT VORE

Content Warnings: Soft, non-sexual vore (only mentions for now). Mentions of body horror. Mentions of experimenting on people. Mentions of death and murder, violence. Being trapped against one's will. Dehumanization. Abductions. Cursing. Darker themes/tone

___________________________________

”Vince? Can I come in?”

Scott hesitated at the doorway of Vincent’s shared bedroom. Despite having permission from Anthony, he didn’t want to go in if the only current occupant didn’t want him to. Not if his best friend preferred to be left alone. 

There was a long moment of silence until a long and tired sigh was emitted. “Sure, Scotty.”

Permission granted, Scott pushed the cracked door open wider to slip into the dark room. Once inside, he saw the prone figure that lied on a bed over the still tucked in blankets. With silent footsteps, he walked over to Vincent’s head before sitting down on the floor. 

Then he waited. It might’ve been half an hour, it might’ve been a full one, but after a while Vincent shifted until he could look down at Scott. Raised an eyebrow when hazel eyes met amber ones. 

“Comfortable down there?” 

Scott shrugged. It earned him a snort. They silently watched each other. 

“Ever feel like you just wanna disappear for a while? Some place far away where no one can find you? Where you don’t have to worry about anything?” 

“Sometimes,” Scott whispered. “Until you knock on my door.” 

Vincent watched him for a moment. “I’m surprised you haven’t bolted it once you realized it was me.” 

That made the younger’s face twist in confusion. “Why would I ever want to?” 

“Oh, Scotty,” came out in a tone that meant to be lighthearted, but was weighed down by sorrow. “If only you knew what I carried.” 

”Can’t I carry it with you?”

A knock on his bedroom door jolts Scott out of his daze. Has him checking the red icon that says it won’t open until he unlocks it. Then he stares at the metal in the attempt to see through it. 

“I made dinner,” Vincent’s voice announces. Softly, carefully. As if he doesn’t want to scare frightened prey. “Would you like me to bring you a plate?” 

No, he doesn’t. That’s the last thing he wants. Not when he was eaten only a few hours ago. 

“I can leave it outside the door if you’d like,” the purple man offers as the silence stretches on for too long. 

Instead of answering, Scott uncurls from his spot on the bed. Crosses the room to tap on the door. Glares up at the taller figure as Vincent is revealed as he carefully hides his surprise. 

“I want answers,” Scott breathes, barely able to contain his anger as he points toward his room. “Now.” 

Vincent obediently walks through the door, watches it close as he stands with his hands in his pockets. And that’s when Scott realizes the purple man is nervous. It might even be safe to say he’s afraid of the conversation they’re about to have. But he doesn’t ask if they can move into the kitchen. 

And he has enough self respect not to ask if this can wait until tomorrow. “What would you like to know?” 

“Oh I don’t know,” Scott seethes, his fists clenched in anger. “Why don’t we start with why you didn’t tell me anything!” 

Because that’s what upsets him more than anything. He’s the one who blindly trusted Vincent to follow him into space. Has not once demanded to be told what happened during those 6 years. Even gave a second chance with the promise he’d be given some kind of warning before hand. 

And despite all of that, Vincent hasn’t said one damn thing about any of it! Being able to grow more than a hundred feet? Don’t tell Scott until it’s happening. The reason why he can’t eat anything? Don’t tell Scott until he’s getting eaten! The person they traveled a week to search for? It’s a kid who looks human, who speaks English, and yet he was either taken from Earth when he was too young to remember anything, or he’s a lot like Vincent and is capable of everything the purple man can do including eating people! 

“You said you would warn me, Vincent! Eating me is not a God damn warning! And what about the fact some kid knows more about what you can do than me! It’s like you don’t trust me, and yet I’m the one who came to space not knowing anything about what I was getting myself into, trusting that you would keep me safe because you promised me!” 

“I know,” Vincent whispers, head hung low though he makes sure to hold Scott’s gaze. “I know I did, and I never intend to break it.” 

“Oh but breaking my trust is fine.” 

“I didn’t mean-” 

“But you did, Vincent! You said you’d give me a heads up!” Scott gestures angrily toward the door. “You call that a heads up!” 

“I didn’t think I would need to,” Vincent defends. “It was only supposed to be a last resort. But they thought you’d be a threat, and I wasn’t going to leave you outside for someone else to grab.” 

Scott stares. “So you ate me instead.” 

Vincent looks away. “To keep you safe.” 

“It didn’t look like you were! How was I supposed to know when you put me in your mouth! I thought I was going to die, Vincent!” 

“I know!” the purple man shouts with a glare. He seems to immediately regret it, guilt appearing until scolds his expression back into an attentive one. Takes a deep breath before nodding solemnly. “I know, I heard. I’m sorry for scaring you, Scott. I never wanted you to ever think I would intentionally hurt you.” 

“Then why didn’t you tell me?” Scott asks, all but pleading for an answer. “You had an entire week with plenty of opportunities. You were fine with telling me you can’t eat, but you draw the line saying what it’s apparently intended for?” 

“Alright,” Vincent murmurs as he raises his hands in a motion to wait. “Let’s say I did tell you. That I said I can’t eat for the sole purpose of being able to swallow someone whole. Be honest with me, how would you have reacted?” 

“Well for starters I would’ve asked why,” Scott answers truthfully, not even needing to think about it. 

Vincent’s brow furrows. “And?” 

“And I would wait for you to respond,” he scowls. “I would’ve asked why. So, why?” 

They stare at each other for a moment, Scott waiting for an answer to something he genuinely wants to know, Vincent deciding if he wants to give one. 

“...to protect you,” comes out quietly. “It’s meant to be used to store smaller species if they’re in danger on a titan planet.” 

“Then I would’ve said who the hell would’ve thought of something like that.” 

Vincent gives him a flat look. “No you wouldn’t of.” 

Scott glares. “I don't know about you, but I thinking about eating, I don’t think about it being a great way to protect something.” 

The purple man hesitates. “It’s a lot more common out here than you think.” 

“And you didn’t think you maybe should’ve mentioned that?” 

“Okay,” Vincent concedes. “You’re right. I just didn’t know how to tell you.” 

“And you think not telling me until you grow into a giant or eat me is any better?” Scott demands. 

He’s given a small shrug. “Maybe.” 

That makes Scott’s blood boil. “Maybe?” 

“Because if you ran at least I gave you a reason to,” Vincent snaps. “And maybe it wouldn’t have hurt as much as telling you and then being called a monster as you walked away. Maybe if my actions were the ones that made you hate me so much that you never wanted to see me again, then I would’ve lost the only person I care about because of something I did. Not because of what I’ve become.” 

"You’re not a monster!” 

“Then what am I!” Vincent shouts. “You don’t even know what I’m supposed to be! Don’t know what he failed to make me into!” 

“Because you haven’t told me!” Scott yells back. 

Vincent growls lowly, looking like he wants to say something before deciding against it. When he makes a point to turn his head away to glare at the floor, only then does Scott realize how much he’s shaking. From anger or fear, he doesn’t know, but once he notices his legs buckle. 

A hand catches his arm before he falls onto the cold, hard ground. Is wordlessly lowered down until he’s sitting with his back against the bed. 

Vincent folds himself beside Scott. “Are you scared of me?” 

Of someone who can hold him in the palm of a hand. Who can swallow him whole. Who most likely can do several more things and has yet to reveal them. That same person who hasn’t once picked him up when it wasn’t wanted. Didn’t eat him at any point until now in the name of protection. 

...no. Scared for him, scared of what happened to him, but not of him. 

“No,” Scott murmurs as he looks down at his trembling hands. “Unless you count not exactly being excited about the next surprise as scared.” 

The purple man snorts. “I don’t think I have any more big surprises.” 

There’s a long moment of silence as they sit together. 

“...what are you supposed to be, Vince?” 

He’s given a long sigh. “Humans don’t have a lot going for them. They’re smart, and they’re resilient, but they don’t have any natural defenses, needing to rely on tools for protection. The most they can contribute to the universe is being sold as an exotic pet, or acting as a lab rat. Especially because we look a lot like another species that’s both highly respected and greatly feared.” 

Scott looks up at Vincent as realization slowly begins to dawn on him, the purple man refusing to meet his gaze. 

“One of them found out about humans, how behind we were in technology and evolution compared to the rest of the universe. Decided he wanted to see if it was possible to make us into something like him. Out of the thirty people he took from Earth, I was the only one who was successful.” 

Vincent finally looks down to see Scott’s reaction, his face softening when he’s met with shining eyes. 

“There were complications. He learned a lot from his other attempts, but some things just couldn’t be helped. The strain put on my body every time I grew caused it to start decaying, the main side effect was making my skin turn purple. I also needed to have my bones replaced with a metal infrastructure. And because I don’t naturally have a storage to safely hold anyone I swallow, my stomach got turned into one. So now it’s impossible for me to eat anything, and I run almost entirely on batteries.” 

Scott feels like he’s going to be sick. All that time, for 6 long years, Vincent had been treated like some kind of lab rat. Was experimented on like he wasn’t someone with thoughts and feelings, who didn’t have people who cared about him and wouldn’t have done everything in their power to find him. 

It isn’t until a hand swipes something from under his eyes does he realize there’s tears streaming down his face. “You’re not going to believe me, but it wasn’t all bad.” 

He’s right, Scott doesn’t believe him. “H-How?” 

“Well,” Vincent drawls. “I got to see things I never thought was possible. And it was excruciating, and lonely, and there were times it took him a while to restart me. But there’s very few things that can hurt me now, no situation I can’t get out of. And I won’t lie, I like being a giant. I would just enjoy it more if I wasn’t literally built from the ground up.” 

Scott stares at the earnest expression. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” 

“Oh Scotty,” his best friend murmurs, putting his arm around Scott’s shoulders to pull him closer. “You were my reason to not give up.” 

“What about me?” 

Scott jumps at the sudden and only semi-familiar voice. He looks over at the now open door, the culprit leaning into the room. It takes a moment to place the black hair and blue eyes, but when he does he tenses at the realization he had completely forgotten about Mike. 

“You kept me sane,” Vincent says. “When you weren’t eavesdropping.” 

The kid perks up before hunching in on himself. “Sorry. I heard you yelling and wanted to make sure you were okay.” 

“We’re okay,” the purple man smiles. “Mind giving us ten more minutes?” 

Mike nods his head before disappearing, leaving them alone again. 

And then it hits him. “He’s not human, is he?” 

Vincent shakes his head. “He's a Colossian, though most species call them giants.” 

Scott looks up in confusion. “How does he know English?” 

“Oh, I taught him. I didn’t get a translator for a few years because English wasn’t in the registry, so while it got programmed in I slowly had to learn their language. He started picking up a few things, though, so we started teaching each other.” 

“What about his name?” 

A wide smile spreads across Vincent’s face. “His actual name is Meechule, and the direct translation is Hunter, but when I first heard it I thought it was the alien version of Michael so I dubbed him as Mikey. It stuck, and he refuses to be called anything else. It made his father so upset.” 

Scott tries to hide a smile at hearing the sheer pride in his best friend’s voice for such an accomplishment. “How am I not surprised you managed to rename an alien.” 

“I didn’t know what the proper nickname would be,” the purple man smirks. “Besides, it’s only fair. He tried to turn me into a Colossian, so I gave his son a human name.” 

Of course. It’s only- 

Scott shivers. “Son?”

[skysiren41]

My thoughts on Kung Fu Panda 4 trailer

So kung fu panda 4 finally released its first trailer and too say that people have been split on it would be an understatement. All and all I'm still keeping my expectations modest I thought this trailer was actually pretty ok, I've have seen a few people say that it looks awful and while I do think it's a bit overblown, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't still worried about this film, so I wanna share my thoughts in the most neutral way possible while also being fair with both its positives and negatives as a Kung Fu Panda fan

●I've seen a few people say that the animation is a downgrade from the others I have to disagree. From what I've seen it mostly looks similar to the third film, the colours especially are quite nice, though I did notice some on the movement be a bit janky. I've also seen some say that the models look bad but I don't see it, there are some changes like they seem to be a lot more expressive but I wouldn't go far as to say that it's a bad change

●One criticism I do agree with is that the furious five seem to be absent in this film, not even Tigress. I do hope they do appear or at least explain their absent because it is weird not to include or even mention them but there apparently gonna have both of Po's dad's appear (don't get me wrong I love Mr Ping and Li Shan, it just I don't think they have a point to be in the story from what I've seen)

●The Chameleon honestly has a lot of potential, not only is it nice to have a female villian in the film, but also the whole concept of her being able to bring people back to life but also even transform into her enemies is such a brilliant idea and really plays into her species

●Tai Lung fans are eating good tonight with him finally being on screen again since the first film. I'm curious if he's only gonna appear in that one scene we see only to be sent back to the spirit realm after the Chameleon takes his powers. If that's not the case I'm curious if there gonna go with the route of giving him a redemption arc. I've always been split on the idea, on one hand I think the tragedy of Tai Lung and how he could've changed is what made him a fantastic villain as well as show the flaws of Shifu as a character, but on the other hand GIVE THIS BOY A HUG! HE DIDN'T DESERVE WHAT HE WENT THOUGH!

●In general the movie seems to be keeping the lighthearted tone from the first film which I'm kinda mixed on, don't get me wrong I like the third film but I do wish they went with a similar tone with the second film, where it was able to be both funny but also wasn't afraid to get dark. I understand that Kung Fu Panda is for the most part lighthearted but its shown multiple times to be able to be lighthearted while also handling mature themes

To close this off I think there are some people are overreacting when they say that the trailer is awful but I also see why a lot of people are unsure about this forth film myself included

[4townie]

Sean’s Gay Awakening

- all throughout highschool, Alex was like a light in the corner of Sean's eye. very bright and very present, but not at his focus quite yet

- they met early on in their freshman year in one of their shared classes, they had a group project and Alex was the type of funny, lighthearted guy that could make working with a bunch of strangers actually fun

- so he and Sean became good friends

- but Alex didn't really fit in with Sean's regular friend group. He was very upbeat and gentle and goofy and Sean's regular friend group were…the type of kids that land you at a Beverly Hills party that gets busted

- even though their friend groups didn't mix they managed to stick together

- and poor confused Sean on the other hand is kinda cycling through girlfriends, the first one is a little too mature for him and has really weird expectations about what highschool is supposed to be for her, the second one's a little calmer but she's still emotionally demanding and kinda parading him around other girls cuz he's cute

- and then the third one figures him out before he does since she was the only one to ever hang out one on one with him and Alex

- most of the time if Alex was around that crowd, Sean was much more reserved in his behavior around him but with only that one girl around, he felt way more comfortable and unknowingly exposed himself

- this is still the 90s so it's not very surprising that once she realizes she gets creeped out and dumps him, which really sucked for Sean because she was the best one out of all of them and he “really liked her”

- but of course Alex is there for him, comforting him and supporting him after the breakup because hey what do friends (who are secretly in love with their friends) do?

- and then one morning Sean comes into school and Alex sees him and he just says “how's it going today, Seanie?”

- and that's when it hits him

- see over the past few years that light in the corner of his eye had slowly been moving closer and closer to center, what with him doing better mentally after spending time with his brothers and nephew now

- one little line and suddenly the light is at full blast in the center of his vision

- but that's extremely overwhelming

- so Sean starts being weird and distant as he tries to rationalize what he felt in that moment, attempting to convince himself that it was just a weird one time thing and it didn't even mean anything. except it's not a one time thing

- every time he sees Alex from now on, he gets awkward and blushy and he's got that weird feeling in the pit of his stomach

- and he can't help but notice that he never felt that way with any of his girlfriends, like sure he thought they were pretty but he was never actually attracted to any of them

- and to make this all worse, since prom is approaching, he keeps getting asked out/flirted with by girls who want him to ask them

- but he's having a little meltdown one day and Alex settles him down and asks him what's been going on lately and Sean accidentally blurts out “I JUST REALIZED I HAVE A HUGE CRUSH ON YOU”

- and Alex gets super quiet which of course makes Sean panic and think well great now he's grossed out and he’s never gonna wanna see me again

- but then Alex asks him to prom

- Sean’s a little taken by surprise but he's super excited too and obviously accepts

- which is how Danny found out about this because he was acting uncharacteristically giddy when they got home

- and Danny's the one who kinda grounded him back in reality of how tf is he gonna go to prom with a guy in front of his mom?? and also he's comfortable with Alex cuz he knows he likes him but he's not really all that comfortable in his sexuality yet

- that is why he goes to Jesse who happens to be a really cool big brother😎 and he starts to become more okay with it (not all the way but he’s on the right path)

- now Sean and Alex are noticeably hanging out more exclusively, sometimes when no one's looking they'll hold pinkies

- and that is how Sean realized he is actually extremely gay. because apparently being in love with Robaire wasn’t enough

[maochira]

can you do for the writing Event, hanging out with bastard München but it's field day and so they go eat Currywurst together

please

SAKJDKJSDSDAKDSHK I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS REQUEST IT'S SO SILLY

Field day with Bastard München!

request open! - event list - event introduction

Tags: gn!reader, for those who don't know what Currywurst is, just google it real quick (it's popular food here in Germany)

(A/N: because I've been asked that a few times, yes I am from Germany LMAO and so is Claire)

Event sypnosis: you, Claire (@deerangle3 ) and Mao (me) are assistants in the Neo Egoist League

-the trip goes surprisingly well. No chaos, no fighting, etc. That's mostly thanks to you, Claire and Mao because you're able to equal out the disharmony between some players (cough Isagi and Kaiser cough)

-the day actually only consisted of a bit of sightseeing and walking around the city because the players from Germany didn't get a chance to see Japan, since everyone has to stay in Blue Lock all the time

-you walk past a restaurant with German food and the players from Germany really wanna go there. Cause, you know. They've been only been served Japanese food in Blue Lock

-after a bunch of begging Noa gives in and all of you go in there

-it's just regular Deutsche Pommesbude food, like fries and Bratwurst and stuff

-Kaiser doesn't admit how excited he is to get German food again, but you know on the inside he's cheering like a little kid when their mom makes their favourite food, so you tease him a bit about it

-Kaiser actually orders multiple things but only eats like half of them and Ness has to eat the leftovers

-Gagamaru eats so fucking much and he would probably eat even more if you wouldn't have stopped him

-Birkenstock consumed 3 Currywurst with fries in 10 minutes (A/N: I have a weird emotional attachment to Birkenstock soo.... I had to add him)

-at first, Raichi complained about the food, before he even tried it. Claire started an argument with him and somehow got him to shut up and just try the food. He also ended up liking it but didn't admit it (he doesn't want Claire to win the argument)

-you share food with Kurona because he's not really hungry but still wants to try something

-Yukimiya gets interested in the food, so he asks a bunch of questions to Claire and Mao (if you're German, he will ask you as well.) He also wants to know about other German food! That starts the idea of asking Ego to provide some more food variety in Blue Lock

-Kunigami really hates being there and wishes he would have stayed in Blue Lock. He doesn't even eat anything. You try to get him to join in on the conversations but he ignores you every time

-you keep offering him some fries and he ends up accepting those (without saying a word, tho)

-Isagi is a bit weirded out by the food so he sticks to eating fries

-then Kaiser starts an argument with Isagi about him "disrespecting" German food and usually you would stop their arguments, but this one is way too funny so you let them argue for a bit

-the bread vs rice debate (like in that one Blue Lock Additional Time) starts between the entire team, and then they ask you, Claire and Mao for your opinions but you guys refuse to answer. But Mao is starting to have an internal crisis because as a half German she loves bread but as a half Thai she loves rice and you just see her spiraling into an identity crisis for 10 seconds. Then she snaps out of it because Claire makes a joke about putting rice on bread and force-feeding it to Igaguri

-Igaguri is NOT amused by that joke

-the day is actually some of the most lighthearted time you ever got with the entire team. Mostly because everyone forgets about soccer and being competitive for a bit

[one-winged-dreams]

Lux

ship: (Lux Astrum x Gladiolus Amicitia) source: Final Fantasy XV word count: 1401 cw: implications of physical parental abuse

I'm so fucking SGKJHSELGKJ over Lux and Gladio being childhood friends to lovers, and Gladio being there for the start of Lux's transition. Also gay gay homosexual gay.

very quick for indulgence purposes no proof reading we post like men

tag list: @dearly-beeloved @kylars-princess @adoredbyalatus @dorothys-wife @the-sleeping-city

@dear-gambler @sunstar-of-the-north @mahitosoulmate @goldenworldsabound

"Things still rough at home?"

The question was enough to get Lumine to open her eyes. She liked it here, in the Amicitia's backyard, her favorite respite from her family and life in general. There was no shouting or senseless conflict. Just the soft feeling of sun-warmed grass beneath her.

"... Yeah," she answered Gladio with a sigh, bringing her arm up to drape over her forehead. 

"... I see," came Gladio's reply, accompanied by a huff through his nose. "Not sure why I asked..."

There was a mostly comfortable silence after that, only mostly considering the awkwardness of the subject that had been breached. 

"Was it... always like that?" Gladio gambled against the odds of making the conversation MORE awkward, deciding to go ahead with what he wanted to ask.

"... Not sure," Lumine ultimately answered. "My grandparents were never like this, to my knowledge. It'd be a disgrace if my whole lineage was..." 

A sigh left her lips as she trailed off, her forearm coming down to cover her eyes.

"If anyone deserves to serve the King... My parents aren't it."

Gladio merely nodded his head, a thoughtful gesture of contemplation. 

"Do you think you are? I mean, as the oldest, how do you even feel about taking up that mantle? I don't see you as the family type," he tried to make a lighthearted comment, rolling his head to the side to fix Lumine with a teasing eyebrow arch.

Lumine snorted, a good sign.

"What, are you saying you wouldn't start a family with me?" she teased back before returning to her melancholy expression.

"That'd be something, though, wouldn't it? Astrum and Amicitia..." Another inhale through her nose. "If it came down to it, I'd DEFINITELY take your family over mine. I don't have any real attachment to mine, if they want someone to continue the lineage they've got my sister."

Gladio's turned his head to look back up at the sky.

"Man. All daughters. That's a load of responsibility."

Lumine didn't say anything for a second, taking a few beats until she gave her reply.

"Yeah... Daughters..." 

It was quiet again. This time there was a palpable tension, one that had Gladio sitting up a bit, turning on his side and supporting himself with his elbow.

"What's up with you, Lumine?"

Blinking, Lumine turned her head to look at him.

"I mean, like... A lot, but what are you asking specifically?" 

Gladio's expression was a bit more serious than she was comfortable with.

"How would I know? You're not exactly an open book these days."

This had Lumine's brow furrowing, a little offended by the comment. Gladio didn't mince words, it was something she loved about him, but this was hitting a little too close for comfort. 

"Yeah, well. Maybe I've just had some stuff on my mind."

"Anything you wanna share with the class?"

"Not really..."

"Then what about with your boyfriend?"

Lumine winced. Godsdammit, that was a sore spot. She never wanted to be distant, never wanted to be the way her parents were. With herself, with each other. Whatever she had with Gladio, she swore it would never end up like that.

But this was... Different. 

A lump in her throat made itself known, and she struggled to swallow it.

"It's... I'm..." She took a deep, shuddering breath. 

"I want to tell you, but... I'm scared."

Gladio's brow furrowed this time.

"You? Scared?"

Lumine's eyes clenched shut, her eyelids trembling in a way that made it known she wasn't exaggerating.

"Yeah," she replied, her voice cracking, "... scared."

"Lumine," Gladio sighed and she winced. "Don't give me that crap. You don't scare easy, so just... Out with it. Rip off the bandaid." 

Lumine's eyes opened and she looked at him. Her eyes were wide, vulnerable and wet and foreign in a way that Gladio wasn't used to seeing. 

"But I'm scared if I do... You won't... Know me anymore..." Her voice came out in a near whisper. 

"Is that so bad? You've stuck with me this long, Lumine. And I've stuck with you. Whatever it is, I already know I'm still gonna like whoever you are. Even if it means I have to help you bury someone here in the yard. So just say it," Gladio's attempt at light-heartedness was a bit of a failure in that his conviction to get Lumine to open up was a bit intense. 

It seemed to do the trick though, as Lumine gulped again, staring at him with an expression that trembled along the ledge of vulnerability. 

"I don't think... I don't think there IS a Lumine," she spoke softly, breathily. 

"Well then, who is there?"

The question was abrupt, blunt, and perfect for breaking down the final wall that stood between Gladio and true openness. Tears welled up in Lumine's eyes, and she didn't even try to keep them from falling.

"Well... It's... Lux." 

"Tell me about Lux," Gladio continued his trend of unwavering support, which only made the tears stream even quicker. 

"Lux is... What Lumine would be like if she wasn't so sad all the time. Lux can stand up for... for himself."

There was a silence that was so tense that Lumine winced, keeping her eyes clenched shut. The silence was so deafening she wanted to reach up and cover her ears. But more than that, she was even more afraid of what would break that silence.

"I see. Well... does Lux still want to be my boyfriend?"

In an utterly appropriate metaphor, Lux's eyes snapped open in a manner that was like he was seeing the light for the first time. Here in Gladio's backyard, where the sun always felt brightest and warmest. 

He took a quick inhale.

"He would... He really would..."

More silence followed, less tense but still ringing with questions neither of them wanted to breach yet.

"But... Are you even...?" Lux managed to bring himself to grasp the most important one.

Whatever he feared, he wouldn't find it, as Gladio let out a snort.

"Lux... I don't even like girls."

"THEN WHY-"

"Guess I was just ahead of the game, huh? I thought it was weird too, but I guess I'm just more in tune to you than YOU were. Face it, you're oblivious," Gladio snickered, reaching over to pull Lux's headband off and ruffle his hair.

"Hey!" Lux protested with a whine, making an even whinier sound as Gladio tossed the accessory across the yard.

"Come on, is Lux still gonna let his parents decide what he wears? I've always hated that thing on you. You should get a more badass accessory," Gladio sat up fully, crossing his legs.

"Like what? A piercing or something?" Lux followed suit, arching a brow in contemplation.

"That's even more badass than what I was considering, you should do it," Gladio responded by giving Lux's shoulder a playful shove. "You said Lux stands up for himself. Maybe it's time that he started now."

Lux stared at him for a good moment before slowly nodding.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right," he said thoughtfully, partially to himself.

"You're gonna be 16 this year, that's old enough. How about when your birthday rolls around we take you down to get one?" Gladio's arm came to wrap around Lux's shoulders now, giving him a little shake accompanied by an enabling smirk.

"You paying for it?" Lux snorted, unable to keep from cracking a smile. "What kind do you think would be best for a first one? Something that'll piss off my parents, they're gonna kick my ass no matter what I get."

The comment was played off casually, both of them were used to darker quips about Lux's home predicament. And so they thought for a moment.

Eventually, Lux turned to point to the area between his eyes.

"Okay, bridge?" 

And then one of his hands moved down to his nose.

"Or nostril?"

Gladio seemed to think for a moment, rubbing his chin.

"How about... BOTH nostrils. Sounds like a good middle ground."

"Oh, good idea. Anyway..." Lux trailed off, inciting a head tilt from Gladio.

"Come on, you're not about to clam up NOW are you?"

"No! No. I just..." Lux sighed before leaning into him and closing his eyes.

"Thanks... For still loving Lux."

Gladio's arm tightened around his shoulders.

"No problem... But I don't have to talk about having an ex-girlfriend do I?"

"NO!"

[river-muse]

For the WIP ask game: I want to hear more about "Lost in the Stars!" that one sounds like it could very easily rip out a reader's heart 👀

Ohohoho you picked out one of my DMC crossover AU ones. This one is a little more lighthearted in overall tone compared to my other fics actually! "Lost In The Stars" is just the working title for it since I haven't come up with a better title. It's because I have been playing way too much Sky: Children of The Light in my downtime when not doing other things and accidentally my skykid keeps creeping closer and closer to looking like Nero.

I'll talk more about it under the cut!

So after letting the idea boil around in my head for a few days the first thing I made was this fake screenshot (in truth this is a partial lie, the BG was different but since writing the fic I've changed it):

But of course, I wasn't happy with just some art.

It follows the formula of the actual game (which I don't wanna spoil the surprise for anyone who hasn't played it so I won't go to deep into detail) which means revisiting the locations over again multiple times. There isn't too much substantial here besides what can be read between the lines, with Dante being referred to as the Kind Protector and Vergil being referred to as the Regretful Brother. It's definitely an excuse to draw fake screenshots and mess around with star overlays.

Now onto the excerpts! These are way more narrative heavy, reflective of how the game itself works.

Nero is on his second reincarnation when he saves the Kind Protector from the endless darkness. Out in the Golden Wasteland surrounded by the ever-looming and ever-hunting Dark Dragons whose spines hurt more than can be put into words. A faint glimmer of the spirit’s surviving light lay hidden amidst the spires and covered up by growth that burns apart at the close proximity of Nero’s candle. The lost light leads Nero through treacherous open area, showing a man with vibrant red wings wielding a weapon against the beasts- something that Nero has never seen any previous spirit do. The Kind Protector was fending a Dark Dragon off to buy time for someone else to survive. There, in this field of poisoned water that saps strength and has too many gazing eyes above Nero finds the spirit’s final resting place. Still kneeling as if still holding onto a sword that’s been lost to an untold amount of time. Nero fails to free the spirit the first time, having to hide away in a tunnel while a Dark Dragon passes overhead and sweeps the area for prey. Then he leans close to the petrified remains while calling on his candle to share his own sparse light. The Kind Protector, for that’s all Nero thinks to call him, poses with an ephemeral sword in hand as if ready to fight before anything else. Nero mimics it. It feels silly seeing as he doesn’t have a sword. That earns a musical laugh from the Kind Protector, which only flusters Nero. Nero stomps his feet and points at the sword in the Kind Protector’s hands before motioning to himself. The Kind Protector waggles his finger to say no, refusing to pass the sword over for Nero to try posing with it. Instead he ruffles Nero’s hair and points to Nero’s chest. Nero holds his hands over where his light is seen, looking down at them before glancing up and thinking to find a way to ask what that meant.

-

The first time Nero sees the faint flash of a lost light high on a cliff, he thinks he’s strong enough to reach it. The ascension through the rain drains him and the water below is so cold. He has no choice but to huddle against a brazier inside a hollow log to warm up. His body shakes and he hiccups from the involuntary shivers as his light struggles to pull him back from the cold. He calls out his candle to feel warmer and huddles down. He’s on his eighth reincarnation, and most spirits seem to be freed yet he refuses to leave any lost before moving on for good. This one seems stubborn though. Or almost too hurt to save. The light is faint and Nero doesn’t know if they get weaker the more he reincarnates but he doesn’t want to find out. When back at aviary village Nero uses paper and a stick of charcoal to draw the area for the Kind Protector to see, leaving a question mark at the top of the cliff with an arrow pointing from the base towards it. The Kind Protector’s face drops. He rubs at the back of his neck and shrugs while his wings rustle just a bit too much to show he’s hiding something. Nero sighs.

-

When Nero’s twelfth reincarnation rolls around he makes it at last, holding out his candle to the lost light to reawaken it. It seems lost. The spirit aimlessly drifts with Nero’s every step and Nero has to hold out his hand to call it towards the faint glimmer of the beginning of the memory. Nero bears witness to the sight of the Kind Protector standing readied to fight- wings flared and blade raised in a threatening manner. This lost spirit faces him down with equal anger. The two fought. Blades clashed and wings torn at the edges from hits that are too close for comfort. They seemed equally matched. Until the lost spirit’s attacks became more desperate. It was a losing fight, and the spirit falls to his knees while the Kind Protector offers his hand out. It’s slapped away. The spirit rises, backing away from the Kind Protector. The two part ways, and at first Nero can’t tell where the spirit went next, until he spots a shimmer at the base of the cliff. It’s such a large fall into waist deep water. Nero drifts down, soaking his lower body in the water and feeling a chill creep up on him when at last he finds the spirit’s resting place. Crouched with one knee on the floor and a rusty, broken sword driven into the ground to keep balance. Nero offers his candle. It flickers in the rain but persists and at last the shell breaks apart to free the spirit. The spirit’s mask appears different than the memory- lines turned down in sorrow rather than anger. The spirit slicks his hair back the first moment he appears, hiding away that it looks a lot like the Kind Protector’s. Nero mirrors the motion and crosses his arms as he sizes up this- this- Proud Swordsman. That sounds wrong. Lost Swordsman? No. He’s not lost. The likeness to the Kind Protector is too obvious. They were kin. At least, Nero thinks so. The Kind Protector had been hiding this knowledge for some reason. Regretful Brother. It sticks out as the spirit bows just enough to show respect while keeping his eyes on Nero. His gaze burns through Nero the same as any fire. He feels pride. The Regretful Brother offers his hand out for Nero to take. Nero rests his little palm on top of it and the spirit grasps back. There’s a pause as the spirit looks at their hands. Then as soon as he’s there, the Regretful Brother is the first to choose to move on, vanishing into blue particles before Nero can figure out what thought that simple touch had brought about. When Nero returns to Aviary Village to confront the Kind Protector for hiding that he’d known- he searches everywhere and can’t find him. Not in the café. Not at the town square. Not at the top of the bells. Not on the hills overlooking the gates. There isn’t a single glimpse of those red wings.

I don't have too much written for it, but I definitely plan to add more to it in the future! I love playing Sky. Exploring to try and uncover clues as to what exactly happened to their world is super fun.

Thanks for giving me an excuse to actually talk about this one! I haven't really shared it because it's mostly surface level.

[arsonchaoschild]

When you get this, please respond with five things that make you happy! then, send to your last people in your notifs (anonymously). you never know who might benefit from spreading positivity. thank you, you're the best!

oh this is adorable. okay

first things first, art. the act of creation gives me power and joy no matter how dire the situation may be. i'm currently working on a short story that an acquaintance of mine wants to illustrate and we'll print copies for her artist alley appearance! very very excited about that. i love telling stories, i love writing poetry and songs, i love singing, i love painting (i love drawing too but that bitch is on thin ice) i love crafts and i love sharing and partaking in art with other people

next up: hope punk! punk in general. but the solidarity and hope and innate warmth of humanity really do a lot for me. pessimism is easy, but i choose to resist and stay hopeful, not because i'm dumb or naive, but because i've been through a lot and though becoming bitter would be so easy, i'd rather choose to be kind and be a beacon of others, be the person i needed when i was at my rock bottom as a young kid.

something more lighthearted, decorating! i love making a space my own, i love the control it gives you, i love coming home to somewhere i know is mine. this will be a bit more time but i'm hoping to move home by the end of summer or start of september the latest. i wanna make a lightcatcher inspired by howl's earrings and paint one of my windows like stained glass and have a strip of wall painted like a galaxy with glow in the dark stars and constellations and i wanna hear the gentle gentle ringing of my geode windchime every morning. i can't wait to acquire my own collection of mugs and also festival cups which i've been collecting (i just got a nonbinary flag one from prague pride and i love it so much) and i can't wait to curate my own little library

also cooking! i have food sensitivities, so if something goes wrong and the texture is off or something it sometimes ends up going to waste, which upsets me obviously. but nothing beats the feeling of kind of going off the cuff on a recipe and making something that tastes amazing, or stirring big pots of everything knowing you get to feed other people. i'm really looking forward to baking cupcakes for my new class this school year and inviting people over for coffee and dessert.

last but not least is just.. people. i love people. i love socializing. i love the intricacies within different personalities and i love talking and i love love love people. socializing can sometimes be exhausting or awkward but it's still so important to me. in july, i went through a few weeks of horrible loneliness, where i was losing touch with reality. i went to a con at the beginning of august and on the bus home i cried because of how much i love life and called my grandparents asking to visit. i hugged my grandmother (the one i live with) upon coming home at like 10 pm and it felt so good. humanity is good maybe.

[tokyo-tower-symbolism]

A Deep Dive of the Claudine-Maya Revue in the Movie, or why you really ought to read the fine print before signing a contract in tomato juice

So the Revues in Revue Starlight are a lot.

There is just so much packed into a few minutes. The sets! The fighting! The music! There’s just so much going on that you can’t completely process everything going on at once. And it’s absolutely awesome. The Revues look so amazing and feel so epic.

And sure it’s a lot, but we still get what’s happening. We saw the build up to each Revue, and we mostly know what’s going on in each of their heads. After all, it’s not just the stage that matters in the revues, but also the emotions going into it. For some, they’re worried about their future as a stage girl, whether or not they’ll be good enough to one day achieve their dreams. And for others, they’re worried about what graduation will mean for their relationships with each other as they each go on their separate paths. And as much as they try to hide it, these anxieties boil over in their Revues, forcing them to confront their deepest insecurities in front of the very person they tried so hard to hide it from.

But they’re never alone in these cases, they have their partner. Admittedly this usually doesn’t help at first since the only thing worse than one person catastrophizing over their future is two people catastrophizing over their futures. But still, they all manage to figure it out in the end together.

But Maya and Claudine aren’t insecure about the future. Both of them know that they’ll get into their dream troupe and neither of them seem too bothered about the fact that the two of them will be going their separate ways after High School.

So unlike every other Revue so far, which has been desperate and came from a place of hurt, the Revue of Soul starts off so much more lighthearted. The vibes are completely different from everything that came before in the movie. It feels like Maya and Claudine have nothing left to say to each other, that they are doing this Revue just for fun, it’s like a game to them.

But obviously it’s not just that, the two of them mean so much to each other! They’re just acting otherwise because of their pride, and once the two of them decide to drop all pretenses, they can finally have a proper Revue, where they put everything on the line just to understand each other.

And to see how we got here, I’m going to try to lay out everything going on with Claudine and Maya in the Movie that got us here. This is a part of a series of Deep Dives I’m doing for each of the Movie’s Revues, and while you can read this one without reading the others, I may make some references to themes and ideas that I brought up in the earlier Deep Dives, but I’ll do my best to give context if that ever happens.

So first I wanna talk about Maya at the start of the Movie.

She’s applying to the New National Theater Troupe, regarded as the world’s greatest theater company. She wants to use it to face even greater challenges there and go to the greatest stage.

And unlike Mahiru or Futaba who doubt their chances of getting in, Maya has no such concerns.

Her teacher even warns Maya that the lessons will be strict at New National because even she is already assuming that Maya will be accepted.

It should be noted though, that when her teacher sees her plans, she mentions that this troupe was what she expected from Maya, which leads into Maya’s self image thing we see later in the actual Revue.

Of course, that’s not to say that Maya is only applying to New National because that’s what people expect her to do. She’s genuinely excited. She’s constantly bragging about how cool and awesome New National is in the common room and on the train ride to New National. Seriously, in the scene in Common Room, she’s reading a book about them because she’s so excited to be going there and wants to share what she learned with all her friends!

Honestly she’s such a dork.

Speaking of friends, Maya has them now! She isn’t nearly as isolated as she was at the start of the series, back when Claudine was the only one to reach out to her. Before there would usually be shots with some line or other kind of separation between her and the rest of her classmates in the frame, but Nana’s taken that role now, so Maya gets to be smack dab in the middle of conversation now instead of lurking at the edge. And later at the kick off party, you can even see Maya talking to some people who weren’t in the Starlight cast! I guess after losing the Top Star position to Hikari, she seemed less untouchable and more approachable? Though I’m only saying that because Maya isn’t really trying to make more friends by being nicer. In fact, Maya isn’t really acting any different from how she did in the show.

Like sure, she lost the audition because Hikari and Karen Starlighted more than her and Claudine, but it’s not like they really shook her worldview. She even says to Claudine that she hasn’t lost. She had absolutely no reason to change in the time between the show and the movie. The only thing that changed is that people don’t see her as the untouchable top star anymore, just their friend who’s a little more skilled than they are.

Actually that might be because of Karen and Hikari beating her now that I think about it. I mean in the Revue of Pride, Maya was almost insulted by Karen’s idea that she could shine together with Hikari. After all, Maya talked about how the top star had to stand alone and what she had to give up to be the top star, and it everytime it would cut to a shot of Claudine.

But after losing to them, maybe Maya softened up on this position. She realized she doesn’t need to stand apart from everyone else in order to shine, and that maybe she should reach out to others more, just like Karen and Hikari did to shine together. So that’s why she comforts Claudine after their loss, and that’s why she decides to get closer to everyone else after the auditions.

But while she’s not nearly as distant as before, there’s still a gulf separating her and her classmates. She’s still on a last name basis with most of them, and there are some visuals separating her from Futaba and Mahiru, like the metal bar separating them on the train, or how Mahiru and Futaba mimic the poster on their left while Maya mimics the poster to her right.

But for a more distinct moment of separation, take a look at when Kaoruko brought up the anniversary of the auditions. No one else knows what she’s talking about when she mentions the date, except for Maya, who coolly answers her. And while everyone is kinda shocked that Kaoruko would actually want to go through that again because last year's auditions are kinda a terrible system and everyone moved on, it’s important to note that they all did forget the date and are way more surprised than Maya that Kaoruko would even consider wanting to be the top star of those auditions.

Kaoruko claims that everyone’s indifference to the anniversary is actually because they all gave up on becoming the top star. And like obviously Kaoruko is just lashing out here, she admits it to Claudine later, but there’s a grain of truth in how no one was seriously thinking about being the top star anymore, or about their next stage before the Revue of Annihilation.

Except for Maya.

So now let’s take a look at Claudine.

Because of her performance in the 100th Starlight, Claudine was scouted by a Theatre du Flamme, a prestigious troupe in France that could rival New National in fame. It’s an honor and it’s her passion and she wants to put herself up to the challenge, all that stuff is that’s important, yes, but what I want to point out is that she isn’t going to New National with Maya! It’s not even her second choice! She has no plans to compete on the same stage as Maya after they graduate!

Earlier I said Maya didn’t change much from the show, but Claudine definitely has.

Claudine has this thing in the show where she’s cool, calm, and collected most of the time. She’s very wise, easy to get along with, and supportive of all her friends. Basically the perfect stage girl. However all of that goes out the window the moment Tendo Maya comes into the room. Literally the moment Maya enters her line of sight, she goes completely feral and will devote 100% of her energy on trying to beat Maya. And since she’s always in the same scenes as Maya, we see this mode like 90% of the time.

It’s hilarious and wonderful.

But this stops after their mutual loss to Karen and Hikari, when Maya takes a moment to let Claudine know that she respects her, that Maya also needs Claudine, and that Claudine doesn’t need to try so hard to get Maya to acknowledge her.

So basically during the first part of the movie, Claudine knows that she doesn’t need to work so hard to prove herself to Maya, so she can be her usual cool and collected self around Maya.

But despite that, the two of them don’t really talk. Even though the two of them affirmed that they need each other and they make each other soar higher, their only interaction before the Revue of Annihilation is on the Train to New National, when Claudine teases Maya because she overheard Claudine say her name while talking to Junna. This would never happen in the show when Claudine was always desperate for Maya’s attention, but now Maya is the one hanging onto Claudine’s words.

Instead, Claudine focuses her attention on everyone else, which is necessary since they have a lot of baggage.

Mahiru confides in Claudine about her uneasiness about her chances of getting into New National. Kaoruko admits that she’s the most useless of them all only when Claudine confronts her. Claudine is the one who pushes Junna to aim higher in her future plans. And Claudine is the one who recommended Futaba to try and audition for New National.

Anyways you may notice that Claudine doesn’t have a moment with Karen, Hikari, Maya, or Nana. That is for various valid reasons, like Hikari being in London, but from a meta perspective it’s because Claudine has lost to all of them in a Revue at some point. So basically, Claudine is giving advice to everyone as a top star, and she’d be unqualified if she tried to advise the other four.

Anyways I want to take a moment to talk about the differences between Claudine and Maya’s philosophy on the Top Star’s duty to her costars. Maya uses herself as an example of what a top star should be, and expects others to emulate her. Meanwhile, Claudine takes a much more direct approach with helping her friends become the top star.

We saw this in the show with how Claudine helped Futaba practice, while Maya instead advised Kaoruko on how the leader has a duty to be a goal to the follower. Or how when Maya beats Karen, she leaves Karen at the bottom and shines alone at the top. And this is juxtaposed with Claudine beating Futaba simultaneously, but Claudine actually holds out a hand to help Futaba up.

Actually Claudine really only helps Futaba in the show, now that I think about it…

Whatever, we can assume that this attitude would extend to any of her friends had they reached out and asked for help like Futaba.

And now I want to talk about the purpose of Maya and Claudine in the show.

So basically Maya is the perfect top star. She can dance, sing, and act better than everyone else there. Her first scene in the show literally had her claiming position zero uncontested. She is the person they all aspire to be in their pursuit to be a star. It sounds a bit dramatic, but that was her role in Revue Starlight. If Karen and Hikari wanted to topple the top star system, they’d have to defeat Maya, who represented everything both great and wrong about it.

Claudine meanwhile, is representative of the other part of the top star system, the ones who aren’t the top star. She competes with the Top Star, in hopes of taking the spotlight for herself. But despite that, only one person stands alone at the top, so when Claudine is passed over, she needs to take a supportive role and kill her ego in the actual play. And while this is some impressive compartmentalization on her end, Claudine still insists that she hasn’t lost, and continues to challenge Maya despite her many losses. Claudine is what Karen or Hikari would have to be if the other managed to be the top star. But despite that, Karen and Hikari don’t want to fight each other in the show. Hikari goes out of her way multiple times to keep Karen out of the Revues, and Karen wants to shine together with Hikari.

So Maya and Claudine are what Karen and Hikari need to overcome to make their own Starlight. Actually, Maya and Claudine are representative of the 99th Starlight too, the past that Nana tried to protect.

But for everyone else, Maya is the goal that they’re all striving for. She has that je ne sais quoi a star needs, but just seeing the end goal isn’t enough for the rest of them. They don’t get to see how she got there, so they themselves don’t know how to get there. It’s like looking at the answer for a physics question without knowing the formula. And that’s where Claudine comes in. She’s constantly competing with Maya, never letting setbacks keep her down for long. She’s constantly practicing and never satisfied, she doesn’t rest on her past glory. She’s the person closest to becoming like Tendo Maya, to becoming the Top Star.

If a stage girl wants to be like Tendo Maya, first they have to be like Saijo Claudine.

Anyways, that’s what it was like in the show. But if you take a look at Claudine’s advice in the movie, she tends to have a recurring piece of wisdom: That Maya ain’t shit actually.

It sounds a bit rude when I say it like that, but it’s actually supposed to be inspiring.

In the laundry room with Mahiru, Claudine tells her that everyone’s like freshmen, and that if she gets into New National, Mahiru will be too. But following that logic, Maya will also be a freshman, and in the same position as Mahiru, so Mahiru really shouldn’t be that worried, since she’ll be on the same level as Maya. And on the train, when Junna says that she doesn’t think she could measure up to Claudine or Maya right now, Claudine tells Junna that she can be just as good as Maya. And consider what Claudine told Futaba, “If it’s you, you’ll get in.” That’s basically what people said about Maya applying to New National.

And that means a lot considering not too long ago, Claudine thought Maya was just so good that she couldn’t lose to anyone! And when she did lose, Claudine blamed herself instead, because Tendo Maya can’t lose.

But now she’s helping her classmates who are feeling that same insecurity she felt last year, that she couldn’t compare to Maya, and she’s telling them that it’s actually just in their head. That they can be just as good as Maya so long as they don’t think of her as anything special, because otherwise they’d be limiting themselves to Maya’s shadow.

So unlike everyone else, Claudine and Maya are doing fine, more or less. Like yeah it’s a stressful period of transition for all of them as they plan for their futures after High School, but Claudine and Maya seem to have it mostly figured out. If anything, they’re the reliable ones who everyone else goes to for guidance.

So maybe that’s why the two of them take the lead in the Revue of Annihilation against Nana.

When everyone gets put in a surprise Revue with Nana, Claudine and Maya do not get blinded by the stage lights and are the first ones to get their bearings and attack her as she makes her way across the train. And it’s worth noting that they’re the only pair who’s in sync, but that doesn’t really mean much considering the only other pair on the same side is Futaba and Kaoruko, and they’re going through a rough patch. But then again everyone else is also going through a rough patch at this point, so my point stands.

That’s kinda why they’re doing this Revue.

This Revue is supposed to be a wake up call for all of them. Nana knows that they’ll all die as stage girls with their current half hearted conviction, but none of them can see it. They’ve all stagnated and got comfortable, and as a result are dying. So when they fight a stage girl who is actually motivated, they crumple. They’re no match for Nana as they are now.

In the show, Nana always wanted to protect them, and she still is trying to guide them during the Revue of Annihilation. She still has that same brilliance, but no one else has the same motivation they had during the show. Mahiru, Junna, and Futaba don’t even think they can get into New National, which is a far cry from the stage girls who once attempted to beat Tendo Maya and become the Top Star. They’re all scared of the future and gave up on becoming the top star, like Kaoruko accused earlier. And just like Kaoruko said before, she’s the most useless of them all when it comes to that.

And with every clasp she cuts, Nana makes them come to terms with that ugly truth they were ignoring.

But Claudine and Maya aren’t scared of the future. They’re confident they’ll make their dream troupes. Unlike Junna or Mahiru or Futaba, they were in the world of Theater even before High School, and they’re confident they’ll continue for the future too.

So that clarity is why the train leaves the darkened tunnel that Nana defeated everyone else in. And while the train goes through the city, Nana repeats her line from the start of the Revue, that the train will go to the next station without fail. But what about the stage? What about us?

In a literal sense, the next station for the Train is New National, but I’m pretty sure it’s a metaphor for the unstoppable marching on of time. After all, New National is going to be the next stage for a good chunk of them. So Nana’s essentially asking them whether they are prepared to move onto the future. And along with that, will the stage be in their future? Will they decide to live on stage?

But that took me a while to figure out. Like I had to sit down and think about what Nana was saying, and then pick up seemingly inconsequential lines by Mahiru and Claudine much later in the movie. Do you really think I understood that the first time I saw this movie? It’s way too cryptic. Literally how the fuck is anyone supposed to understand that in the middle of a Revue.

But Claudine gets me. She has no clue what’s going on either. She’s just like me for real.

But Maya isn’t a plebeian like me and Claudine. She’s the top star. Obviously she understands exactly what Nana means. This is Tendo Maya, after all. She has never not taken the stage seriously. From the moment she entered Seisho, she already knew what her future was going to be and unlike everyone else, she never had a big shock to shake that resolve.

She’s constantly giving 100% to be the ideal top star and won’t ever stop, so as long as the stage and audience will have her, she is already on stage. Both the stage and herself will be at the next station. She decided long ago to live on stage.

Despite Nana’s worries, Maya will never die as a stage girl.

And that’s the difference between Maya and the rest of her classmates. That’s why Maya is illuminated by moonlight, but everyone else gets cast in the shadows by the tunnel. Because Maya has no doubts that she wants to be a stage girl, she is the only one shining.

Anyways, Claudine continues to be the audience surrogate since she still has literally no clue what Maya and Nana are talking about, which is fair. In what world does any of this exchange make sense? I guess I explained it a little earlier, but literally how is someone supposed to understand this on their first watch? They are speaking complete nonsense. This sounds like a code that a spy agency would make their undercover agents in enemy territory say before handing them classified documents.

This feeling of alienation continues for Claudine as Maya and Nana approach each other in sync, while Claudine is still stuck in place. And despite her calling their names, the two of them continue in their little world without Claudine.

And this infuriates Claudine. After all, the only reason she’s been on her best behavior recently is because she reached an understanding with Maya that they were rivals who respected each other’s skills. And now Nana and Maya, but mostly Maya, are leaving her behind? That’s completely unacceptable.

So it reignites that competitive anger that Claudine had in the show, and she charges at Nana with that same drive to win that she had during the auditions. This is the energy that Claudine had when she was constantly chasing Maya in the show, when she gave it her all. But this means that Claudine hasn’t been giving it her all since the show ended. She’s stagnated as well, since she’s no longer forcing herself to improve, and instead resting on her laurels after getting Maya to acknowledge her. And that’s not enough to stay alive as a stage girl.

Plus, if the only reason she could reawaken her previous radiance was because she wanted to prove herself to Maya and Nana, but mostly Maya, and they’ll all be going their separate ways after High School, can you she really say she’s prepared for the future where she’ll be on her own? It’s not like the two of them will be able to compete like they did at Seisho when they’re halfway across the world from each other.

So while Nana has nothing to say to Maya, who doesn’t actually need her wake up call, she can tell Claudine that she’s being a bit too talkative. And that’s also why Nana can easily slice off Claudine’s button and move on to lock swords with Maya.

But as I said, Maya is already resolved to stand on stage, so Nana can’t actually beat her, so she doesn’t. So by defeating Claudine, Nana achieved everything she needed, so that’s why the cloak falling matches time with Nana reaching Position Zero.

And that’s it. Nana tries to act out a scene with Junna, but they’re all so dead as stage girls that none of them can continue the scene. Blood Tomato Juice rains down on them to add insult to injury, and they’re all so consumed in their own problems they don’t even realize it’s fake.

Except Maya of course, who is the only one with a complete view of the stage currently and can clearly see it’s just stage equipment. And she takes charge, telling them this fact.

But even though Nana has forced them to confront their own failings during this Revue, it will be up to them to work past it.

Which is where Seisho’s 101st Starlight Kick Off Party comes in!

The scene starts off with shots of all their other classmates having fun and it’s brightly lit, but then we cycle through the losers of the Revue, and they’re all alone and in the dark. It’s a visual metaphor.

We then get to Tendo Maya and unlike everyone else she’s not alone, since she’s talking with some other students, and she's actually in a well lit area! Nana didn’t give Maya anything to think about, she can just enjoy this party all carefree like the rest of their classmates.

Unlike Claudine, who is malding and watching Maya through the window and wondering why only Maya managed to not lose. At least, I’m guessing that’s what Claudine means since she never actually finished her question of “why is only she…”. But I’m probably not too far off since Claudine takes a look at her phone which has Nana’s question from earlier that only Maya could answer.

Anyways, I think it's interesting that Claudine gravitated towards the practice room, because that’s the same place she went after she first lost to Maya in the auditions.

Claudine took that loss pretty hard. She missed her morning classes and she kind of just lost all her confidence. And then after class, she tries to practice there, but keeps messing up. It’s only after aggressively dancing there with Futaba, who came to check up on her, that Claudine breaks out of that funk and regains her usual spark.

But the practice room is also where Claudine managed to understand Maya. In episode 4, when Maya and Claudine are practicing there, Claudine asks her why Maya’s participating in the auditions to become the top star when she’s already the top star anyways. That’s like a millionaire entering the lottery, it feels kinda pointless. But then Maya tells Claudine that she’s in the auditions because she wants to be the only top star and doesn’t want to see anyone else take what’s hers, which fits into my millionaire analogy pretty well. And at this moment, Claudine understands that Maya’s just really greedy, which does come into play later in their Revue.

So I’m wondering if Claudine is in this darkened room because it’s where she regained her confidence last time, or because it is where she managed to understand Maya, and wants to again.

Either that or she just spends a lot of time in the practice room, so a bunch of important moments happen here all the time since where else would they occur? She’s always there!

Anyways, back to the kick off party, the script is unfinished, just like their futures. So the director gets on stage and after rupturing everyone’s eardrums by screaming into a megaphone, she tells everyone that she’s scared. That this is going to be their final performance at Seisho and she doesn’t know what their next play will be like, if it will be better than everything they’ve done before. Just like the anxieties about the future that everyone has. But she doesn’t want to stop. She wants to do one last show with everyone.

And the scriptwriter apologizes for not being able to finish, but instead she gets an outpouring of support from her classmates, who love what she did so far and are willing to help her out.

This is just like the stage girls who are also scared of their future, but just like everyone else here, also have each other.

This moment is a turning point for the losers after the Revue of Annihilation.

Once they erect the Starlight Tower prop for the next Starlight play, Maya repeats her line from the train, that she is already on stage, only this time instead of saying I, she says we. None of them would lose to Nana on the train again at this point. They’ve learned their lesson. They’re got renewed determination to live on as stage girls, and even if they’re not there yet, there is someone out there who can help them on their journey.

Nana tells them that the time for snacks is over, and the stage girls need to hunger for a new stage, because that’s what a stage girl is, and asks if that’s true for all of them. She’s putting into words the implicit question she had on the train.

Do they want to continue being stage girls in the future? Well, stage women I guess after they reach a certain age, but then again stage girl is a state of mind so whatever.

And Claudine answers that she’s already on the stage, the same answer Maya gave before, so yeah, she does.

She also finds the answer to her question earlier in the practice room for “why only she…” since Claudine says “So that’s why only she...” while watching Maya perform.

Wish she’d share the answer with the rest of the class though. Or even the question. Seriously.

Anyways, they get back on the train and face their dead stage girl selves. We can tell they’re dead because they have no cloak and are lying motionless on the floor, but also because we quite literally see a dead stage girl later, when Karen refuses to act because she has nothing after Starlight and ends up in a similar state.

These are stage girls with no next stage, no future. And judging by the fact they aren’t wearing shoes, which is characteristic of suicide in Japan, this means these stage girls who chose to die. They didn’t decide to continue to live on stage.

While looking at her dead body, Claudine decides that she’ll get back on stage again. Despite her loss, she choosing to continue acting, just like when she first lost to Maya in the auditions. She’ll have to work hard to become her own ideal top star, but she’s going to do it, so she can’t give up here.

This isn't what Maya does. Unlike Claudine and everyone else, Maya doesn’t even consider looking at her self as a dead stage girl. Because Maya has known her entire life what she’s going to do, she has never considered stepping off of the stage. That’s why she doesn’t even bother to look at it, instead looking at the giraffe, the stand in for the audience, the stage, or whatever other concept it symbolizes that day.

Also it’s interesting that when Junna asks what they need to put an end to, Maya answers “to greed.” She also says “to brutality”, but the greed thing feels more impactful considering Claudine understood that Maya was just a greedy person back in episode 4. Anyways, Maya says they need to do that to continue acting on stage and to get to the next stage, which shows that even she isn’t ready to move onto the next stage, as she thinks she has to strip away some of her uglier emotions to get to her next stage.

Anyways, from the giraffe rolls a tomato that Maya picks up. Because he’s made of vegetables and other fruits now. And no one questions it.

Please someone question this.

They questioned the talking giraffe so much in the show, but literally no one has anything to say about this.

As the giraffe says, he is their food, their fuel. This ties into the original auditions from the show, but there the fuel was each other and it was used to get the top star to their stage of destiny. But in the upcoming Revues, they aren’t fighting to be the top star. They are fighting because as stage girls, they need to hunger for a new stage, like Nana said.

So by eating the tomato that comes from the giraffe, they are choosing to continue being a stage girl. And by repeating Maya’s answer, that they are already on stage, they have grown past the versions of themselves that lost to Nana.

And then we get three whole Revues plus scenes of Karen’s past and Hikari’s journey before getting to the actual topic of this essay. I wouldn’t blame you for forgetting what’s going on with Maya and Claudine before we check back on them.

Although We see Claudine for a little bit, since she has a little cameo in the Revue of Resentment, which was nice. But like, why? Literally no one else ever takes part in anyone else’s Revue. What is she doing here?

I mean I guess it fits into her philosophy with her classmates, where she gets involved in everyone else’s business whether they like it or not. Although we never really got to see that in the show because Maya was on her mind like 95% of the time. Maya’s probably not on her mind right now though, since she’s smug once more, so clearly she got over whatever happened on the train and is confident again, just like at the start of the movie.

Also would you look at that? Some unattended, extra Star Buttons. I wonder if those will ever be used in the future?

But before we get to the Revue of Soul, I want to take a moment to reflect on how all the other ones started. Futaba burst into the scene while Kaoruko was challenging Claudine. Hikari ran into the stage looking for Karen but instead got Mahiru. And Junna was blindsided by Nana forcing her to commit seppuku. What I’m trying to say is that none of the Revues have started with both participants on the same page. And once they do meet up, they immediately start performing because they can’t contain themselves any longer.

Which is why it’s a shock when we get to Maya and Claudine, who are backstage and playing a kids game of Shoji before their revue. They’ve quite literally hung their cloaks up and are just vibing before the show.

And in a reversal of their usual positions, Claudine beats Maya. Maya hasn’t even won once, but she insists that next time she will, just like what Claudine usually says.

Anyways, the lighthearted conversation they have about Maya sucking at Shoji segues into Claudine monologuing about her own failings as a stage girl. Like Maya, Claudine also decided the stage was going to be her way of life long ago. But if that were true, then Claudine shouldn’t have lost to Nana, she should have stayed undefeated like Maya.

But she was so focused on her stage with Maya that she didn’t consider the next stage. And once Maya acknowledged her, Claudine got satisfied with just that, and as a result lost that drive that made her an amazing stage girl in the show, and started decaying because of that. After all, if Claudine was so easily satisfied, she would never be able to grow as a stage girl in the future.

So that’s why Claudine wants to put an end to it with Maya here.

Claudine will be reborn. She will no longer chase Maya. She will find her next stage on her own.

And Maya’s shocked by this. She likes it when Claudine chases her. But Maya knows that she needs to get rid of her own greed if she wants to continue to the next stage, and Claudine needs to do this to get to her own next stage, as unfortunate for Maya that may be.

So despite her probably mixed feelings, she welcomes Claudine to the stage, seeing as they’ve both resolved to continue being stage girls, and that’s what the top star ought to do, right? Inspire everyone else so that they too can one day make it to her level, and Claudine did exactly that.

But that kind of leaves the issue of what Maya and Claudine are doing here.

After all, Claudine just got to the conclusion that it took most of them a Revue to get to. Kaoruko and Futaba, Hikari and Mahiru, Junna and Nana, each of them ended their Revues by cheering each other on as they went their separate ways. And Maya and Claudine just went through that emotional rollercoaster entirely backstage and off screen.

When they perform, the stage girls put everything out on stage. It’s a moment of complete honesty where they reveal all their insecurities and hidden feelings that they avoid in their daily lives. Sure the movie complicates this by adding portions where the stage girls play different characters, but in the end there's nothing but them left.

And it's because of this that they can help each other get ready for the future. Only by laying out their issues could they even begin to ask for help. Kaoruko’s pain over Futaba leaving her, Futaba’s insecurities about her own ability compared to Kaoruko, Mahiru’s fear that she won’t act well, Hikari’s constant escaping from her costars, Junna’s lack of self confidence, and Nana’s longing for a Junna that no longer exists.

But it was because of the Revues that the other person could help support them. Kaoruko understood that Futaba would eventually come back, Futaba got to be the selfish one for once and ignore Kaoruko’s feelings, Mahiru received validation as Hikari’s rival and as an actress, Hikari stopped running away and could properly face Karen, Junna found a new resolve, and Nana got to see Junna shine again.

So what’s the point of this upcoming Revue? Everyone else needed their revues so they could come to some conclusion about their future as a stage girl, but Claudine and Maya are good now. Like sure, Claudine lost in the Revue of Annihilation, yeah, but she figured out what she was doing wrong and corrected herself. And Maya never needed any help with her future as a stage girl in the first place.

Just like the animal shoji, this upcoming Revue is just a game for them. A way to pass time rather than anything personal. There’s no need for the vulnerability we saw before. And it’s all just so antithetical to every Revue we’ve seen so far.

Obviously that’s not going to be true for very long. It’s these two overdramatic losers we’re talking about after all.

So yeah, let’s get to the actual Revue now.

I know the Revues are all about acting, but this one is literally a play. Like when we hear the buzzer that starts the auditions, the curtain rises and it literally says Act I.

Not to mention, there’s an audience too! Everyone who finished their Revues is watching what’s going on.

And then we see our players, Maya and Claudine, or rather the stage person and the devil, because they are playing characters. Specifically characters from Faust, with Maya playing the eponymous Faust and Claudine playing Mephistopheles.

In the previous Revues, you could tell when a character is performing because they are wearing a costume instead of their Revue Outfit, and that’s true even here. Although they are wearing buttons that tie up their cloaks, their weapons are different from usual, and Claudine is speaking in a much lower register.

But while a good chunk of the current scene is superficial, it doesn’t mean it’s meaningless.

The frame next to Maya displays the golden bird from the Revue of Pride, the symbol of her dominance as a top star. In the Revue of Pride, Maya showed the difference between her and Karen, as no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t reach Maya’s level. Everything she did was futile as both the stage and Maya stopped Karen from getting any closer to the bird and the top.

Karen may have managed to win her previous Revues, but she still had a far way to go if she ever wanted to be the top star. And as Karen watched from the bottom of the stairs, you can hear Maya singing about how this is her pride.

That bird is the symbol of all her work to become a top star that no one else could reach.

Meanwhile the frame near Claudine contains the contract that will become very important later on, not that the first time viewer will notice that. But basically, that contract is Claudine’s promise to show Maya a brilliance that she’s never seen before, essentially that Claudine will beat Maya. Which if you think about it, is the exact same as her always saying that she hasn’t lost. She’ll win next time.

Essentially, that contract is the materialization of everything that kept her going as a stage girl despite her many, many losses to Maya.

And it’s no accident that these two meaningful props are framed similarly. Claudine and Maya act like this is just a game to them, but it’s really not. The two of them are too important to each other to let their final goodbye be so meaningless.

Plus, Picture frames will become an important motif as the Revue goes on, and actually you can see a ton of frames at the top of the stage before the light turns on for this Revue.

Anyways, similarly to her role in the gambling house from the Revue of Resentment, Claudine makes a bet with Maya: That if Claudine can show Maya a brilliance she has never seen before, Claudine can win Maya’s soul. And to show this, she steals the bird from Maya’s painting, which is basically a declaration of war when you consider what it meant in the Revue of Pride. But I guess here it’s Maya’s soul?

Undaunted, Maya accepts her offer and signs the contract in blood tomato juice with a T for Tendo, establishing the bet.

And I mentioned that whatever is in the frames is important to them, so I just think it’s a neat visual detail of how much the two of them affected each other by physically changing these symbols.

With the bet established, the stage responds to the two of them, changing the set and starting Act II of the play. It’s titled the Black Tragedy, or the Colorless Desire of the Stage Person. Black refers to Claudine, since her nickname Kuro means black in Japanese, and she’s gonna suffer a pretty big loss in a bit, or that she’s going to be the tragedy that awaits Maya later, I guess. And the Colorless Desire of the Stage Person hints at Maya’s ideal of a top star, as in one that’s empty.

Anyways, the two of them spar for a bit, but it’s not an actual Revue Fight. They are using different weapons from usual, since neither of them have the gem that shines with a stage girl’s passion. And if you listen to the song, you can hear Claudine and Maya refer to each other as Devil and Stage Person, meaning these are just lines in the play for their characters. Plus we see Claudine hide in the shadows using a bunch of demon cut outs as a distraction, which isn’t exactly how Saijo “How dare you look away from me in the Middle of a Revue” Claudine would usually fight.

But then again, seeing the misdirection she pulls off later in the Revue, maybe she has recently adopted a bit of trickery into her arsenal.

Again though, I want to stress that this is like a game to them. They’re saying cheers in French and talking about making a wager. They’re playing. They’re having fun in this Revue. They like competing against each other. Earlier I asked what’s the purpose of this Revue, and the reason is because they want to do a Revue with each other. And you know what? I’m enjoying it too.

Fuck it, I ship them, I’ve even written fanfiction of them. I like it when they’re happy together. Plus it’s a nice change of pace to not have to deal with any heavy emotions for a bit considering we just went through three very emotionally charged Revues and snippets of Karen’s really lonely backstory.

But neither Maya nor Claudine are content to let their final goodbye just be a play that anyone could perform.

As the battle draws to an end, three artworks in those recurring frames descend from the ceiling, and they depict the stage person Maya triumphant, the devil Claudine defeated, and a discarded star clasp.

And while Claudine and Maya ignore it, it might seem familiar to the viewer because the poses and the position of the paintings match the scene at the end of episode 2, where Maya beat Claudine in an audition.

This is because Maya, as the artist we see later, is asserting their history through the play. Despite the two acknowledging each other as equals, Claudine has still never beaten Maya, and they both know that. Maya has always been one step ahead of Claudine.

Back in the play, Claudine shouts at Maya to give her the soul and thrusts her sword forward, but only ends up skewering her hat with Maya nowhere to be seen. And the framing of the scene makes the hat cover the painting behind it with the button, as though Claudine had stabbed the button.

That’s because Claudine should have won here.

In the story of Faust, Mephistopheles does end up taking his soul. It’s a tragedy, so the main character loses. If they were properly acting this play out, Claudine would have won here. So had she been fighting anyone other than Tendo Maya, she would have cut her opponent’s clasp off here.

The show should have ended. You can hear canned applause from the audience, but Maya has disappeared, so something’s up.

We eventually find Maya in the audience, who is clapping along with the empty audience for a show well done.

And then Maya brings up Rivals.

Now, Faust and Mephistopheles are not rivals. Mephistopheles is so much more powerful than a mere human, he’s just lending Faust his powers so he can eventually drag him to hell. They are not equals. Meaning Maya isn’t acting anymore, she’s talking about herself and Claudine now. She’s finished with her performance.

Anyways that little laugh Maya did before saying rivals pissed Claudine off because she thinks Maya is mocking her, so she asks what’s so funny about that. Again, showing Claudine’s insecurity about actually being equal to Maya. We saw this on the train when she was out of the loop with Maya and Nana, and we see this again here, showing that maybe Claudine still craves Maya’s approval.

But the one hole in that theory is that Claudine is still acting here.

Although, there is a moment of genuine surprise in her own voice when she sees Maya, that doesn’t last for very long.

But even though they’re talking about themselves now, Claudine’s voice is still much lower than usual. Plus she’ll continue using the masculine pronoun for I (ore) that the devil uses instead of her usual feminine I (watashi).

By the way, don’t expect any more analysis of the actual Japanese wordings from me ever again. I don’t know the language at all and the very little I do know comes from Anime, so that’s like net negative knowledge actually.

Anyways, back from my tangent, Maya elaborates that Claudine has been doing a very good job at playing the role of a rival who chases after her, which pisses off Claudine even more because what the fuck does Maya mean role? It’s not a role, she is Maya’s rival.

And Maya doesn’t disagree. As we see later, she sees role and one's self as the same. She’s always performing, doing what’s expected of her as a top star. So in a weird way, Maya simultaneously thinks that Claudine is her rival and that Claudine did a very good job at playing the role of her rival. It’s confusing. And Maya tries to explain this, talking about the real role she must perform, the ultimate stage person.

Earlier I mentioned that Maya going to New National was expected of her, and here we hear the other expectations she’s been given, as a thoroughbred, because both of her parents are in theater, but also as a genius. But instead of feeling pressured, Maya embraced these titles.

That’s why her advice to Kaoruko back in episode 6 was that she ought to meet the lofty ideal that Futaba set for her. The sense of duty to always be the very best you can be. In fact, Maya wants to go beyond the expectation that everyone else set for her, aiming for an even more impossible goal that only she could achieve.

But that’s just Maya’s perspective. I’m sure it sounds very grand to her and us at this point, but I doubt Claudine would be very impressed by this goal. And this is all speculation on my end, but I want to rewind to what Maya’s said earlier, when Maya talks about how people called her a thoroughbred and a genius.

And like, Claudine knows that. That was the whole reason she approached Maya when they first met at the entrance exam, because Maya was called those exact same words. But Claudine was pretty famous too. She was called “genius child actor” and “future top star”. And she got ahead of herself because of that. And as Claudine says in episode 10, she was so lame because of that overinflated ego. But when Maya kept beating her, that brought her back down to earth and forced her to be reborn as someone humbler and harder working.

So basically, what I’m trying to say is that Claudine thinks what Maya is saying here is super cringy. It’s like seeing someone do something embarrassing, but then you remember when you did that exact same thing years ago.

It’s the worst.

So in order to end this living nightmare, Maya needs someone to bring her down to earth like she did for Claudine so long ago.

But not yet. Right now is a moment of triumph for Maya as she reveals the cool new bird that is her soul. It’s way cooler than the golden one that Claudine took before because it’s bigger and moves. Plus it’s a vessel for god, since it has no emotions or instincts and is thus completely empty, and therefore can portray every single lead and stage.

Except for tragedies apparently, since Maya refused to play Faust properly and let Claudine steal her soul, so I wouldn’t say she’s perfect yet.

And with this reveal, Maya changes out of her stage person outfit and puts on a white, feathered dress which resembles the large, feathery dress the Top Star Otokoyaku would wear at the curtain call of the Takarazuka Revue. Also the giant staircase is a reference to the Takarazuka Revue, but then again it’s Revue Starlight, so there are staircases everywhere and everything is a reference to the Takarazuka Revue.

If any of those terms were confusing to you, then you really ought to look it up on your own. I’ll do my best here, but literally everything here is second hand information, so take what I say with a grain of salt. So for starters, the Takarazuka Revue is the all-female Japanese Theater troupe that Revue Starlight both glorifies and critiques. Specifically their top star system. But if you’re a fan of this show, you’ll probably like the Takarazuka Revue as well, considering the similar themes and concepts. The franchise was literally inspired by it, after all. And while unfortunately I am completely unqualified to talk about it, there are some good youtube videos and blog posts about it if you’re interested.

Anyways, just understand that by dressing up as the Top Star here, Maya is playing the role of the ideal top star she will be in the future. And I do mean role, since this whole thing is just an act. Maya still doesn’t have her usual sword with the gem that reacts to the passion of a stage girl. Although in her current mindset, Maya really doesn’t see the difference between herself and the role, so I guess it’s fine?

Also I want to talk about how the scene with the staircase elevating Maya is eerily similar to that one shot from the Revue of Pride, showing how this widens the distance between Maya and Claudine, despite them being equally matched moments before. This is the difference between a stage girl at the next stage and a stage girl stuck in the past.

And at the top of the stage, Maya also says the lines that will become recurring in this Revue: “For Heroes, there are trials. For Saints, there are temptations. For me, there is a devil.”

So basically Maya is acknowledging that Claudine hasn’t stopped acting yet, and so she continues the play as well. But Maya has completely changed the play. It’s no longer a tragedy where a devil steals the protagonist’s soul, but a victory for the stage person by tricking the devil. And just like how heroes and saints overcome trials and temptations to achieve their fame, Maya will overcome Claudine to ascend to becoming the ultimate stage person, because Maya isn’t there yet. She knows that. Her giant bird is rough and unfinished, nothing like the smooth and golden soul Claudine stole at the beginning of the Revue.

The ultimate stage person is the next stage for Tendo Maya. Although it’s incomplete, it's where she wants to go, and beating Claudine so absolutely here might let her do it.

Act III is titled “Like an Awry Arrow Revealing the Imitation of God,” which feels fitting considering that whole god complex thing Maya has going on and Claudine using some Junna trademarked tactics in this fight to misdirect Maya by hiding in the dark.

Anyways, they fight for a bit, and the bird projects a light down onto them with the frame in the background, and you can still see the shadow of the bird looming in the background. Eventually we see what’s going on through the frame and its various plays where Maya plays the Hero and Claudine plays the villain.

And while Claudine manages to keep up with Maya, it still ends with Claudine losing.

It doesn’t really mean much considering Claudine is just playing along with Maya though. You can hear it in the song, when Claudine agrees that “For you, a Devil”, even though we know she’d actually want to sing “For you, a Rival,” like she does later in the Revue.

But right now, she’s playing her part as the designated loser, the second fiddle to the main character. Because in this version of the play, the ultimate stage person overcomes the devil by tricking him. Although she offered her soul, the stage person was empty, so the devil gets nothing. The Devil just couldn’t comprehend the Vessel of God.

And Claudine’s playing along with it. She’s even doing the exact same pose as the devil in Maya’s sketch from earlier, which is a little different from her pose in episode 2 in that Claudine is unarmed in the sketch and here, unlike in her earlier Revue where she never let go of her sword.

And that’s why the Devil loses when the Vessel of God shows the infinite multitudes of herself, and wow it is such a good looking scene. It’s just so smooth and don’t forget the character designs! They did not have to go this hard on a ten second clip, but they did, and I appreciate that.

So yeah, the Devil realizes he’s outmatched, a series of frames come at him from the empty vessel, and Maya cuts off the button as Claudine goes falling to the ground, along with the other empty works that Maya had discarded in the dark.

And Maya is disappointed.

She’s like, that’s it? And sure she’s never really celebrated winning before, but she was having so much fun just a few moments ago and now it’s over.

The reason Maya showed Claudine this vision of her future self was because she wanted Claudine to match her. Claudine has always been able to keep up with Maya, and Maya hoped that she could continue to do so as Maya went to her next stage, but it just didn’t work out.

But Maya will learn to live with it. After all, this Revue was supposed to be an end to them, so she’d have to go her separate ways with Claudine anyways, and who knows. Maybe Claudine will use this experience to grow on her own, and be even better the next time Maya sees her. A parting gift, basically.

But for now, it’s the end, and she’s on her own at the very top. So Maya claims position zero as she has so many times before.

But she can’t. The stage rejects her victory.

In a reversal of the scene where Maya was in the audience, now we have Maya confused and Claudine laughing, once again in the spotlight.

And it’s only at this point that Claudine stops acting. Her voice is back in her regular register and she talks like normal again.

Maya wonders what’s going on since she’s sure that she beat Claudine, and Claudine reveals she had a second button on her anyways, so the win didn’t matter.

She also reveals that the button was in her mouth the entire time, making me wonder how she managed to sing with that there.

And Maya gets mad at this. Actually mad.

As the top star, we rarely see Maya have an over the top reaction to anything, so this is kind of a first. She’s usually calm and collected and just goes along with everything. She didn’t even seem that down when she lost to Hikari and Karen.

But all despite that, we do actually see Maya getting angry exactly three times in Revue Starlight, and each time it’s kinda subtle.

The first time is in her Revue with Karen, when Karen thought she could challenge Maya for her position as Top Star without the proper resolve, and Maya beats Karen even harder than she was before for that insulting thought.

The second time is when Nana refuses to go all out in the auditions because she wants to be the Banana that everyone loves, and Maya is barely controlling herself when she tells Nana that she wouldn’t forgive her for that.

And the third time is in the Revue Starlight specials when Hikari plays Claire differently from how Maya would have done it, and instead of facing her frustrations with losing the top role, she criticizes Hikari’s performance. Although she isn’t very subtle about her by the end, and basically starts screaming once she realizes what she’s feeling and comes to terms with it. Plus she makes up with Hikari afterwards. But it’s really not great that Maya implies that it’s been so long since she was properly frustrated that she didn’t even recognize the emotion. In fact, Junna mentions she has never seen Maya that frustrated before, and gets genuinely surprised when Maya laughs. Although that may be because it seemed like Maya was laughing at Junna’s newest original quote. Maya has a really bad habit of laughing at the worst times, now that I think about it. Remember the thing from earlier with Claudine?

And while one of these is a lot pettier than the others, it is worth noting that everytime Maya got mad, it was because she thought her opponent wasn’t taking the stage seriously enough.

And right now Claudine just broke the laws of the stage.

And like sure, these Revues aren’t exactly following the same rules as the show. Mahiru cut Hikari’s button but continued Revue and Junna managed to go past Position Zero. Actually, now that I think about it, even in the show we had Karen getting up again after Hikari cut her clasp in the Revue of Astral Sins, so the laws of the stage are more suggestions at this point.

But Claudine and Maya aren’t them.

These two are the establishment. They are the embodiment of everything amazing and painful in the top star system. They are what Karen and Hikari needed to overcome in order to shine together in the show.

The two of them aren’t meant to subvert the Revues like this.

And technically Claudine didn't. After all, it’s not like Claudine’s a sore loser who won’t accept a loss. I mean she can be a sore loser who won’t accept a loss, but you know what I’m saying.

As Nana said, these aren’t auditions. They aren’t fighting over a single role that someone else can bestow upon them. This is for their own self satisfaction, and clearly Claudine isn’t satisfied with this ending.

Anyways, Claudine brings up the contract they signed where Claudine promised a brilliance that no one has ever seen in exchange for her soul, but the contract is discarded and in the dark, so you’d be forgiven for forgetting it. After all, it was just flavor text, right? That was part of the play, not this Revue between the two of them.

But without Maya’s knowledge, the two of them apparently agreed to change the final goal to the T on the contract instead of the normal position zero, so that’s the ending that this Revue has to honor.

It’s rather devilish of Claudine though, making a contract that tricks the signatory. There’s a reason you shouldn’t make a deal with the Devil, you won’t know the true cost until it’s too late.

And maybe Maya did forget it, but still, she showed her Vessel of God, the ultimate actress who could perform any lead. If anything, that should have been the never before seen brilliance. The Revue should be over. Maya should be satisfied.

But Maya isn’t an Empty Vessel of God. She’s human. That’s the advice that Claudine kept trying to tell everyone at the start of the movie. “Maya is just like them, don’t get intimidated.” And she’s not empty either. She’s full of Pride and Arrogance and Envy and Longing.

Pride and Arrogance is the name of the song that was performed in the Revue of Pride. Technically it’s a duet between her and Karen, but even then Maya completely dominated both the Revue and song, with Karen only getting like a couple lines in the beginning before getting drowned out and utterly defeated. It was the song where Maya sang about the difference between her and Karen, the difference that makes Maya a top star. Pride, the deadly sin, is the reason Maya is the top star. It’s how she got to where she was.

As for envy and longing, that was literally her motivation for the auditions. When Claudine asked Maya why she was in the auditions to become a top star when she was already a top star, her only reason for joining was because she didn’t want to see someone else become the top star. She is a jealous person and just the thought of that would make her go mad with envy. Again, one of the seven deadly sin pushed her to constantly compete to stay the Top Star and never rest on her laurels.

And like I said earlier, it was that conversation that got Claudine to realize that Maya was just super greedy. Another deadly sin. Can you really call someone like that an Empty Vessel of God?

So like Claudine says, Maya is just a greedy human.

Okay, so I know I sound a little pretentious by talking about sin and what it means, but that’s not my fault. Revue Starlight did it first. When Hikari traps herself in the eternal stage, she says it’s her punishment for her sin of trying to steal everyone’s brilliance. And then Karen responds that all of the stage girls sinned by aiming to be the top star as well. So by definition, it’s impossible to even be a stage girl without sinning.

Anyways I just thought that was a neat little aside, now let’s get back to watching Maya’s entire future fall apart right in front of her.

The Empty Vessel of God was just a goal for her, and Maya isn’t there yet. It’s the role she thinks she must perform. So Maya knows that Claudine is right when she says that Maya’s acting isn’t up to par for this role. Claudine is the one who’s been watching Maya the closest. She knows who Maya is, and Maya herself told Claudine half of these facts.

Before this Revue, backstage in the dressing room, Claudine said that she would to put an end to it with Maya and be reborn so she could stand on the next stage. But she’s taking that back now. Now she’ll be reborn to beat her rival into submission.

Claudine played along with whatever Maya was doing earlier, because that was part of the Revue. She wanted to act and perform on stage with Maya. But now that Claudine sees this warped worldview that Maya has for her future, she can’t just ignore that. She’d never forgive herself if she just let Maya ruin herself like this. And Claudine is nosy and always gives her opinion on what someone ought to do, like with Junna and Futaba at the start of the movie, even when it’s not asked for. Especially when it’s not asked for, in Kaoruko’s case.

She knows she has to get Maya down the right path to be a top star, and unlike Maya, Claudine doesn’t just expect others to be inspired by her and try to match her. She reaches out her hand and pulls them up along with her.

So Claudine chooses to be reborn just to beat Maya so thoroughly that it will bring her down to earth the same way Maya did for her back in the entrance exam. It’s what Maya needs.

And who cares about the next stage? It doesn’t matter right now. For Claudine, it’s only the two of them.

So Claudine kills herself and is reborn.

She reappears at the top of the stairs, out of the costume and in her usual Revue outfit, so we know for sure that she’s no longer acting. She also manages to make a mockery of Maya’s ideals by parodying Maya’s Revue Introduction for her own Revue Introduction. Actually, with the elevated starting position and the bird imagery in the background, even her entrance is a parody of Maya.

But despite that, she is unabashedly herself right now. She still states her ideals and goals for this upcoming Revue, to have her brilliance show Maya something she has never seen before. She made that introduction into her own. She has her regular weapon again and she stopped acting entirely. She physically destroys the Vessel of God, which is kind of unnecessary when you consider how thoroughly she disproved its existence earlier.

And if we take Claudine’s lyrics as fact, that right now, the stage belongs to her, then that means Claudine being herself managed to shine brighter than Maya being the perfect lead, proving Maya’s whole plan for her next stage to be completely and utterly useless.

So after such a thorough rebuttal, Maya has no reason to play the role of the perfect top star anymore, and as such also disappears, letting her costume and her button fall, just like Claudine from earlier, so she too can be reborn.

Maya accepts Claudine’s challenge to beat her into submission, not that she thinks it’s going to happen, and reappears rising from the stage where they held their play, which is opposite to the stage with the giant staircase. And before she rises, the painting of the button from before falls, essentially balancing out Maya’s win from before by getting Claudine to drop one of Maya’s buttons. Well, sort of. Plus the pictures of her history of victories over Claudine disappear as well, so basically the two of them are restarting this Revue with a clean slate.

Now in the Revue of Pride, Maya descends on a swan during her Revue Introduction. In the Revue of Fate, Maya and Claudine appeared on top of Tokyo Tower before doing their Revue Introductions. This is because Maya has always been the favorite to win, the closest to reaching the top, but for the first time, she’s the underdog who has to rise to get to the stage. She has to meet Claudine’s challenge for once.

So just like Claudine, Maya also parodies Claudine’s usual introduction and ideals, while making it her own. She plans to show Claudine the difference between them once and for all, just like before, but now she’s not going to act as if she’s been enlightened. It’s pure arrogance at this point. And I guess to mirror Claudine stealing Maya’s imagery, Maya has those sun rays coming from her head which bring to mind King Louis IV, the Sun King of France. It’s a bit of a stretch, but I think it works. There’s also the Cold Sparklers on the stage since Claudine is kinda associated with fire, like the burning passion Claudine mentions in her Revue introduction. It feels like a stretch though.

But it’s kinda important that their Revue Introductions, the thing that is supposed to be all about the performer, is being used to mock each other. That Revue introduction is supposed to be everything they stand for, everything they want from this Revue, and like sure they still do that, but now their introductions are literally barbs and personal attacks on each other. They’re already fighting before the Revue even properly begins. Their only goal here is to fight each other, anything else is an afterthought.

And that includes their positions too! Neither Maya nor Claudine introduce themselves with their head or as 2nd rank here like they usually do. They’ve thrown all that out as well. Their past doesn't matter here. It’s just Maya and Claudine of the 99th class.

Honestly I love this berserker mindset that the two of them have going on for each other right now. Literally the only thing on their mind is beating each other. It’s so unhinged and I am loving it.

Anyways, once Maya appears from the ground, you can hear orchestral notes from Pride and Arrogance with each of her arm movements, signaling that Maya has given up on being that ideal empty vessel and is now performing like her usual self again. And now that Claudine and Maya have gotten rid of all pretenses, the title of the Revue shows up.

Their Revue has finally started.

The stage is reconstructed and merged, with the roses and crosses from the play mixing with the obelisks and the stairs from Maya’s Vessel of God set. It also marks the start of Act IV, “We, together.” And wow is that title fitting.

The music slows for a bit, with the only movement being the wind that blows through their clothes and hair. If that imagery sounds familiar, that’s because this is a callback to the Revue of Annihilation. Only instead of Maya and Claudine being out of sync again, now they charge at each other in time with the music.

Also I like the little detail of how they have to fall down from their platform and rise up again to meet each other in the middle. It feels symbolic.

Anyways, while locking swords, Claudine brings up how Maya dropped her facade and is her usual self again, and Maya takes offense to her glee because she kind of hates this usual self since it doesn’t fall in line with her image of the ideal top star, calling it emotional and ugly. But Claudine is kinda into it. She wants to see more. The audience wants to see more. After all, we don’t like Tendo Maya because she’s the perfect top star, I mean we do, but we also like her because she’s an overdramatic dork.

Although I’m guessing the audience Claudine is actually referring to is their friends who have been watching this entire thing, if you recall from earlier. And yeah, they like Maya too. They don’t want Maya to force herself to be someone she’s not. They want her to be herself around them.

Then again, Revue Starlight operates on Schrödinger's Fourth Wall, so who knows which one Claudine is actually talking about. Maybe she’s talking about the faceless masses that Maya has always been trying to impress. I literally could not tell you.

But you know what, Claudine especially likes this Maya, saying the desperate and emotional Maya is the cutest she’s ever been, since Maya usually represses these feelings.

The cute thing is a callback to when they lost against Karen and Hikari in the Revue of Fate, when Maya told Claudine that she was cute when she cried. Claudine was so invested in the stage and in their victory that she was overcome with emotion when they couldn’t make it, and Maya likes that. She likes Claudine when she gives her all to the stage. And now Maya sees that Claudine likes Maya when she does the same.

Either that or Maya meant that Claudine is cute no matter what she does, even if she isn’t measuring up to the unreasonable high expectations that Claudine set for herself to match Maya, which is why she doesn’t have to keep proving herself to Maya. But in that case, Maya also doesn’t need to try and be some unreachable lead for Claudine, she just needs to be Maya.

So Maya responds in the most Tendo Maya way ever by stating that she’s always cute, because she’s always given her all to the stage, but it’s still good to see her proudly reclaim that with pride and arrogance. And she’s no longer mad at getting exposed, just thrilled again to be able to perform with Claudine.

Anyways, while fighting, the two of them literally do nothing but sing about each other. They use their opponent’s name as puns in the song, they talk about how they only need to look at each other forever, you get the gist. But what’s interesting about this fight is that the stage isn’t responding to them. They maneuver around by swinging on ropes they cut off. The momentum of landing causes Maya to get thrown off her platform, and the smoke cloud that ensues when it falls blinds Claudine from one of Maya’s attacks. Their attacks kick up the ornately placed rose petals and send them everywhere, and the stage rising literally tosses them flying in the air.

The stage is literally breaking apart as they fight, which has never been an issue for them before. Only minutes before, Claudine got the stage to make devil cutouts that she could hide in and Maya got the frames to fall and attack Claudine. The stage responds to the passion of a stage girl, but right now it’s getting in the way because they don’t need the stage. They’ve gone past it even. They just need each other, they are their own stage at this point.

Anyways, while falling, Maya grabs onto Claudine’s cloak and complains about how if it wasn’t for her, Maya wouldn’t be exposed as a fraud. Remember, Maya’s philosophy as a top star is to be someone who inspires others to try and be like her. But that really doesn’t hold up if we see that Maya herself doesn’t even act like that, so there’s really no reason for anyone to try to emulate that in the first place. But if you look at her face, you can tell Maya doesn’t really mind. If anyone was going to expose her, she’s glad it was Claudine.

And Claudine grabs her cloak in return and agrees that only she could do this. After all, the two of them are special to each other.

They said as much in their Revue against Karen and Hikari, when the two of them took a break from fighting so they could stare longingly in each other's eyes and confess that they understand each other instinctually and only they can keep up with each other.

While falling, Maya resolves to expose her everything on stage, a complete 180 from her position only a few minutes ago, and Claudine tells her that she has a partner who she can expose everything to on the stage, namely herself. This is mirrored in the song, where Maya says basically the same thing and Claudine promises to accept it, be it ugly or beautiful. Oftentimes the song has the singer's true feelings, which can sometimes contradict the words that the person says on stage, but not this time. The two of them have resolved to be completely true to each other, and aren’t hiding their real thoughts out of shame or insecurities anymore.

And what are their true thoughts?

They want to cross swords forever. They love the stage and they can’t part from it. It makes them pathetic clowns in Maya’s eyes, but it’s fine for Claudine since they’ll have each other as Rivals as long as they stand on stage together.

And that’s great for both of them. Their competition makes each other better. They’ve always known that. Back in their dressing room, Claudine was worried she stagnated because she was satisfied with just being Maya’s equal. But now she sees that as long as she continues to compete with Maya, she can still grow as a stage girl without decaying or dying.

Actually, the only reason she was dying as a stage girl was because she thought she didn’t have anything to prove, but here’s someone who will constantly ask her to put her best self forward over and over again as they push each other higher and higher.

Actually, going back to when Maya comforted Claudine after their loss, Maya says the same thing she said in this Revue, that she can only go higher if Claudine is there. Meanwhile Claudine says that Maya makes her more beautiful, a direct contrast to how Maya claimed her emotional self was ugly before. In the song, when Maya talks about exposing herself, Claudine says it could be ugly or beautiful, but clearly she thinks that it will be beautiful in the end.

Also, you see that orange glow that’s starting to get brighter in that little window at the stage? That’s the start of the fire that will consume the set by the end of the Revue, and it only grows when Claudine mentions her beauty.

The two of them take a moment to call each other by their first names instead of their full names like they always do because they’re extra. This is probably a reference to “Ma Maya” and “Ma Claudine”, but I guess they thought the tenderness would feel a little out of place in this climactic showdown. Personally I think they’re wrong, but I’ll give them a pass because everything else has just been so perfect.

The two of them repeat the refrain from earlier, about how heroes have trials, saints have temptations, but they change the last line to “For me, there is you!” They’ve divorced the line from any roles, now it’s just them.

Although in the song, Claudine sings that “For each of us two, a rival”, not exactly cutting out the roles from before, but keep in mind Claudine always saw herself as a rival to Maya, it wasn’t just a role to her. But it also has a greater meaning in the larger scope of the movie, since Hikari and Karen eventually also become rivals and have this relationship, so it’s a bit more universal when Claudine says rivals instead of you. Then again the next line of the song is the two of them agreeing that their rival is each other, so it doesn’t really matter too much.

So basically, Claudine got Maya to admit that she should expose everything on stage and give up on being an empty vessel, as well as getting Maya to admit that Claudine was her rival. I mean we already knew that second thing, but still.

So by showing Maya a brilliance she had never seen before, that being the two of them pushing each other by being themselves, Claudine has completely outshone Maya’s ideal top star that could play any lead. She fulfilled the promise she made for Maya’s soul, so she can claim the Position Zero that the two of them set on that contract from before instead of bothering with the Position Zero given to them by the stage.

And Maya agrees. Once Claudine strikes the finishing blow, we see a frame around Claudine. Now earlier, when Maya had the frames, it displayed one of the infinite multitudes of herself that she could play in a production. But Claudine isn’t playing anyone. She is unashamedly herself, and Maya thinks she’s beautiful. Claudine is far more compelling that that empty top star that Maya tried to be.

Also, I want to bring up what the frames mean. The frames showcase the works they have made as stage girls, be it their plays, hard work, or promises. And Claudine couldn’t get here on her own. Her radiance is a direct result of their rivalry. So Claudine herself is one of Maya’s works, just like how Maya is a product of Claudine. They molded each other that deeply.

And immediately after saying that Claudine is beautiful, the stage gets set on fire, which is fine since it kept getting in their way anyways. The fire also melts away any traces of the giant mechanical bird.

✨Symbolism✨

Okay but actually the fire is a reference to what the giraffe told Hikari right before this Revue, of how he was the fuel to be set alight by the passion of stage girls. As he said, stage girls are dangerous, but it’s because of that danger that they are so beautiful, just like what Maya sees in Claudine. And that beauty/danger was so much that it burned down the stage, I guess. I don’t think that’ll hold up if you go to court for arson, but what do I know?

But actually, this burning down of the stage may have been foreshadowed long ago.

Back in episode 3, after beating Karen in the Revue of Pride, Maya tells her that there is only one star that shines at the top. But then it cuts to the aftermath of Claudine and Futaba’s revue, where Claudine helps her opponent up, and Maya trails off in the voice over, saying “However, the flames of her passion…”

Maya had firm ideals about what a top star should be, namely alone, but even at the start of the series, Maya knew that the flames of Claudine’s passion could overwhelm that. Admittedly it was Karen and Hikari who actually proved her wrong in episode 10, but Claudine is the one who actually changes Maya’s perspective on how she should be a star here.

And change she did. After her loss, you can actually see a couple tears in Maya’s eyes! Maya didn’t even do that when she and Claudine lost! And she clearly had strong feelings about losing, even if it was hard for her to understand at the time, at least that's what she said in the specials.

And even though she isn’t full on bawling Claudine did for her, she’s letting herself be more open, and that’s a start. She’s letting herself go through the emotions that the stage brings out in her.

Although there’s really not much of a stage left, considering everything got burnt down and destroyed.

Anyways, Claudine takes this as a moment to gloat about winning the bet, because yeah, she did. She’s been waiting for this moment for years now. That has to feel good.

But Maya pulls a page out of Claudine’s book and says she hasn’t lost yet, this was one of the rounds. That the two of them will continue to challenge each other over and over again for the rest of their days until their contest is over.

And that contest isn’t ending anytime soon, since as Claudine says, the Revue of Rivals doesn’t end for all eternity. Which is a big departure from what the two of them decided backstage, that they would put an end to it.

Although neither of them mind, considering they look pretty self satisfied laying on the ground.

Anyways, we get a shot of the two of them holding hands over the Position Zero on the contract they made, which is probably a call back to when Karen and Hikari were in basically the same position after their final Revue in the Show.

In that scene, there was nothing but the stage, their promise, and each other. And they made it work, despite all the bumps along the way. And just like them, Maya and Claudine also make a promise, to keep performing their Revue of Rivals that never ends. Sure they might be able to stand on the same stage anymore, considering their different troupes, but they’re still connected, just like Karen and Hikari were for all those years when Hikari was in London.

Funnily enough that’s not the only thing they steal from Karen and Hikari. Even the way they hold hands over their Position Zero is a reference! Normally, in the play Starlight, Claire holds out her hand, but grasps nothing but air because Flora was blinded and fell off the tower. But in Karen and Hikari’s rewritten Starlight, their promise is kept and Claire and Flora can hold onto each other (and the stars they were longing for) using the same odd grip that Maya and Claudine use to hold onto each other.

After seeing so many pairs of stage girls agree to meet again after they part, we are finally seeing a pair who agreed to part but still got to keep their promise to reach the stars together, a pair who will still be connected no matter the distance.

It’s kind of hopeful in a way for all the other pairs who separated actually. Maya and Claudine are at the final step of the journey each of them will be taking in the future, and we can see that they’ll be connected in spirit as rivals. So that means Futaba will eventually make her way back to Kaoruko after proving herself. Mahiru will continue loving the stage and her brilliant self, as well as be Hikari’s rival. Junna and Nana will meet each other on the same stage in due time. And neither Karen nor Hikari will lose themselves in the other in the end.

Anyways, they also say we are the flames that fall together while burning, which is probably a reference to the giraffe from earlier, since he was also falling and on fire. But when he did that, he talked about his role, which was to light the stage, which I guess could corroborate what I said earlier on how Maya and Claudine are a hopeful future for everyone else.

And yeah, that’s where we leave them. Sure, we get the shot of everyone tossing their capes off at the end, but this is where the two of them end their story together. Well, not actually, but you know what I mean. From here on we’re going to see them as individuals.

We see that Maya got into New National, along with Futaba and Mahiru. It’s also nice that Maya isn’t alone in her next stage, a reversal from all her talk about how a top star needs to stand alone from before, but then again she hasn’t been peddling that nonsense much in this movie. But all of them seem excited to invite Hikari to their next performance, so hopefully it’s all going well with them there.

And then we see Claudine, who it looks like is working at a coffee shop in Paris alongside acting at Theatre du Flamme, the troupe that scouted her. Anyways, she promises to visit Hikari next time, which I guess she can do by just crossing the English Channel. Plus she also has that little chick in her window, probably to remind her of Maya.

Honestly this one probably was my favorite Revue when I first watched the movie. I mean it actually had a kinda happy ending instead of a bittersweet one, so that definitely scored some points in my book.

But even now I just think it’s so good. Like I didn’t even realize that Maya had been repressing herself throughout the show. Like Maya literally said she would go mad with jealousy if she saw someone else be the top star, but she took that loss way better than Claudine. Obviously she wasn’t ok with that. And sure we see her actually lose her temper about it in one of the specials, but I’m going to guess a good chunk of viewers didn’t even know they exist. Seriously, watch the specials. We actually get to see Hikari bonding with her classmates, it’s beautiful. But this Revue feels it completed a character arc I didn’t even know was going on but makes total sense in hindsight! Plus seeing Claudine in non feral mode actually helped me understand her character in the show a lot more beyond her relationship with Maya. Somehow, everything in this movie feels like it was handcrafted just to make me appreciate the show more!

And it just feels like everything a Revue should be about. Like they always called it performing, but this is the first time we actually see a Revue as a play with actors. But then their personalities and struggles slowly start to bleed through the role until they’re showing their true selves on stage and are desperately trying to one up each other.

Don’t get me wrong, every single Revue did that in the movie. You can see everyone get more desperate and unhinged as the Revues get closer to the end, but it just feels the most drastic with these two since they go from 0 to 100 real fast, unlike everyone else who you can clearly tell are worrying about something from the very start.

So yeah, good Revue. Honestly I think I should get a rival myself now. I feel like I’m missing out here.

And now here’s some more thoughts I either didn’t think of earlier or just didn’t want to completely derail the deep dive for:

Maya on the train mirrors the man in the poster that talks about how to act.

This feels kind of on the nose since Maya is the only one who isn’t defeated by Nana, so the rest of the stage girls need to learn how to act from Maya, since she’s the only good example at that point. It’s also her philosophy as a Top Star, that she shows others how to act as a top star and hopes they try and act like she herself did, by giving their all on stage.

I also think it’s funny how perturbed Maya is here when Mahiru would rather take a look at Futaba’s phone about the play they’re gonna see rather than her very interesting infodump about how cool New National is. Like despite acting all cool and detached, Maya can not stand not having the attention be on her, just like Claudine.

So I was recently told that when Nana is fighting each of the stage girls, the lyrics actually reflect a failing of each of the specific stage girls. I kind of missed that last time, my bad, but I do know now so I can talk about it a little.

Anyways, while the train goes back into the tunnel, Nana addresses the beautiful mademoiselle, and asks if there is wildness inside of her. Now by context, it sounds like she’s addressing Maya, because Maya tries to hide all those kinds of feelings and wildness. But the word beautiful will only be used to describe Claudine in their upcoming Revue, and mademoiselle also feels like it’s referring to the French Claudine.

And in a way, Claudine was hiding her wildness as well. I’ve been referring to her drive to beat Maya as feral, and apparently Nana agrees. She hasn’t been going all out recently because she’s been satisfied, and she’s been keeping that wildness dormant.

Although then in the next line, Nana says that the ones who will survive to the end will be:, and Maya is the only one who does survive to the end. After all, Maya is the only one ready for Wi(l)d-Screen Baroque, which basically means the next stage, so maybe she was referring to both of them in that middle line?

Nana was kinda on the backfoot when Claudine and Maya worked together. Like don’t get me wrong, she was clearly dancing around them easily, but it’s still worth noticing that she would block their blades when they attacked her individually, just like everyone else, but had to dodge when they attacked together. And in the end, Nana defeated Claudine because she attacked her without Maya.

Okay so at the Seisho Kick Off Party, usually there is a line from the script that someone else says while one of the major characters in frame, and it’s usually thematically relevant to their upcoming Revue. Only for Claudine, she is the one reading it, and Maya does not have a line for herself. But technically, the line Claudine says is for Maya. After reading it, Claudine looks elsewhere from her script, and while it seems like Claudine is taking a look at the Starlight Tower that Class B just put up, we later see her watching Maya perform.

So yeah, this is Claudine subconsciously realizing that she needs to get Maya down from the tower, she needs to bring her to earth, make her no longer the top star, but just Tendo Maya.

Okay so in their game of animal shoji when Claudine checks Maya, Maya is more concerned about the chick. And then Claudine teases her for not actually playing the game properly, and Maya makes an excuse that she feels sorry for the chick, which is why she noticed that first. It’s dumb, but it’s actually true.

So when actually Claudine beats Maya, it’s using only chicks because Maya can’t bring herself to take any of them. Maya really does have a soft spot for the birds she’s associated with.

Anyways, I’m going to take this funny little scene and use it to gush about how this is a microcosm of their upcoming Revue.

So basically, Claudine is constantly adapting in her pursuit to surpass Maya. She’s taking in new information all the time, and using that specifically so she can beat Maya in the game. This ties into the whole being reborn thing as many times as she needs to to beat Maya. Funnily enough, Maya repeats that she’ll win both the next game and the next Revue after Claudine beats her at both.

But it also kinda shows that Claudine is a much better strategist than Maya, which leads me to the question, was all this planned?

Like we’ve established that Claudine probably knows Maya better than Maya herself at this point, so Claudine might have known what she had to do coming into this Revue, which was to beat Maya so badly she had to completely reconsider her philosophy as a stage girl. I know I made her decision to be reborn to beat Maya sound kind of spontaneous in the main essay, and I stand by that because we do see her genuinely surprised a couple of times, but there’s an argument to be made that Claudine planned this super far ahead.

Like, she got the second button during that gambling scene with Kaoruko, but what was she initially planning to do with that? She tricked Maya into signing a contract so that the Revue wouldn’t end even if Maya beat her once. She continues to play along and act as the devil even after Maya breaks character. So was what she said backstage, about being reborn by ending it here, also just misdirection to lull Maya into a false sense of security? A ploy to create a sense of urgency and get Maya to finally reveal her hand, the Empty Vessel of God, just so Claudine could utterly demolish the idea?

But like none of that is very Claudine behavior. She’s always been direct and straightforward, so it doesn’t really make sense. So maybe they were just contingency plans? I mean sure she wants to win, but she’s never been underhanded about it before.

So maybe? Maybe not? Who knows?

She’s a really good actress, and it doesn’t really change the end result.

I think it’s funny that Maya is displaying her amazing stage talent with a bunch of framed paintings when canonically she just sucks so much at art. She absolutely hates it. The Revue Starlight 4-koma has 3 jokes that it keeps repeating about Maya, and one of them is how terrible of an artist she is. Painting is on her dislike profile. But here she is acting like that weakness doesn’t exist, another sign that she’s forcing herself to be someone she’s not.

Junna had to fight for her life to avoid dying as a stage girl, and here we have Claudine doing the exact same thing Nana was trying to get Junna to do and being reborn instantaneously. 

Junna is fuming in the audience for sure right now.

I am obsessed with their Revue introductions in this movie. I really wanted to go more in depth in the actual essay, but in order to not completely kill the pacing I’m moving it here so I can scream about it and no one can stop me.

Okay, so first off we get Claudine calling out Maya’s usual introduction with the shine of the moon and love of the star, because literally what the fuck does that mean. Like is Maya actually comparing her own brilliance to actual celestial bodies? They don’t actually mean anything. The thought is just as empty as that lead Maya was trying to portray. Anyways, she throws all that out in favor of her own light, the burning passion from her original intro, and promises to bash it into Maya’s heart, which is much more violent that Maya’s promise to send it. And then she takes Maya’s usual thing of showing her brilliance, but changes it to my brilliance will show you, because that’s the goal she set for this Revue.

Meanwhile, Maya kind of completely got rid of her earlier philosophy and is no longer trying to act like an otherworldly being. That’s why almost none of her new intro is like her old one, because none of that would fly with Claudine anymore. Instead she makes fun of Claudine’s bravado and pretentiousness. I mean seriously, talking about freedom and equality and love, who does she think she is, the French Revolution? She’s just as savage and pathetic as the rest of them. Instead, Maya details her own accomplishments, as the best and brightest, but in a much more narcissistic way than before. And while Claudine would have confidently stated that she was the star (in French), Maya makes it her own not only claiming to be the star, but mentioning the distance between them as no matter how high Claudine soars, it’s basically the abyss for Maya.

The disrespect! The incisiveness! The rage! They want to punch each other in the face soooo bad, I love it.

Okay but what the fuck is up with the roses? Was that supposed to be a Rose of Versailles reference? I legitimately have no idea, but it feels important considering there were roses in the background of Claudine being beautiful? I mean the only other things in that scene when Claudine beat Maya were themselves and the frames, so it feels important that the roses were there too. Is it really just for the aesthetic? I feel like I’m missing something here.

Also, can I just say we were robbed of never seeing Maya and Claudine have an actual Revue in the show. Like these were the two best performers in their class! I wanted to see what happened! It was probably amazing! Don’t get me wrong, them working together was awesome too, but I wanted more.

Although it is funny that apparently the two of them destroyed the stage even back then. Like this was not a one time thing. Literally every time they fight they cause complete and absolute destruction, and that’s amazing. Also probably a metaphor, but I don’t feel like thinking about that too hard right now.

And I know I’ve never really been that objective in these Deep Dives, but can I just say how happy I am that Claudine got her win against Maya here? Like she never really got her chance to shine in any Revues in the show, but you could see just how hard she worked and how badly she wanted to win, and she finally did it. And it was glorious. It was everything I ever wanted for the two of them.

This movie is just so good.

[sleepysheepytea]

AIGHT SO I’M TERRIBLE AT TITLES I DON’T EVEN TITLE MY ESSAYS FOR SCHOOL SO HERE WE GO AHSFDKJ

This is the first tk story I’m ever sharing and I’m nervous as honk but kinda excited at the same time.

Summary: Tenshi’s feeling quite down, so Reuel’s gotta find a way to cheer him up!

Warnings: It starts out a bit sad, so just be aware about that. Also sorry if it’s a tiny bit lore-dumpy but I couldn’t really find another way to make certain things make sense sfkhdjg

"Tenshi!" Reuel trudged up the stairs in his friend's house. He and Tenshi had planned to attend an after-school study group with some other classmates, but Tenshi hadn't met him outside as he'd initially promised.

"Tenshi?" Reuel called once again as he reached the top of the stairs. He looked to the left, where Tenshi's bedroom door stood, closed. This was a slight cause for alarm as Tenshi, being the social butterfly he is, rarely closes his door unless his mood was at rock bottom.

Reuel pressed his ear up to the door, just to make sure he wasn't barging in on anything he shouldn't have been. His heart dropped when he heard the faint sound of muffled sniffles, accompanied by a few quiet sobs.

Reuel's face immediately dropped to a look of concern. He very gently knocked on the door as softly as he could, not wanting to startle his friend too badly. "Tenshi?"

He heard a tiny gasp and a small thump, followed by the pitter-pattering of feet. Another soft thump and a small yelp could be heard before Reuel saw the doorknob trembling. The door flung open and Reuel was greeted by his best friend, his hair looking like he had just gotten caught in a tornado, but still smiling nonetheless.

"H-hi Reuel! Eheh, I was reading a bit and I must have lost track of time, sorry about that!" Tenshi's voice was a bit wobbly, and it cracked a few times, but he tried his best to brush it off as nothing. Reuel wasn't buying any of it. Due to Tenshi's rather fair complexion, Reuel easily caught sight of the redness of his eyes, cheeks, and nose.

"What's wrong?" Reuel asked, placing his hand on the doorframe to prevent the blond from leaving.

"Wha-what do you mean? Noth-"

"Don't give me that," interrupted Reuel, looking past Tenshi to see one of their assigned books strewn on the desk. "And of course no offense, but you and I both know you can't read that by yourself."

Tenshi seemed to have admitted defeat rather quickly, stepping backwards to eventually flop down on his bed, head in his hands.

"Did they do it again?" asked Reuel. He knew Tenshi was constantly bullied mercilessly at school, all the while refusing to fight back or ask anyone for help.

Tenshi's bottom lip began trembling and he sniffled quietly. He nodded. Reuel sighed sympathetically. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No."

...

Reuel sat down beside his friend. He curled his arm around the blond and gave him a comforting side-hug. Reuel patted down his hair so it wasn't so messy, at least, not as messy as it had been.

"You know you don't have to pretend to be okay, that'll only make it worse. Sharing a burden makes it lighter on yourself."

"I know," Tenshi sighed, squeezing his hands together to keep from crying again. "But I don't want you to be burdened too."

Reuel grasped Tenshi's shoulders gently but firmly and looked him dead in the eyes. "No, no, no. That's no way to think. Now look, I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to help. You can always tell me anything, I'm more than happy to kick anyone square in the face for you."

That last comment earned a giggle out of Tenshi. He rubbed his eyes with his sleeves, a faint smile lingering on his face. "Eheh, thanks."

It felt as if a weight was lifted from Reuel's chest, seeing his friend smile again, truly, this time. Releasing his grip on Tenshi's shoulders, he decided to keep the more lighthearted mood going, as he was sure that would cheer up his friend. Though, he knew there was one thing in particular that would cheer Tenshi up in almost any situation.

"Ah! H-hehehey!" squealed Tenshi. Reuel had darted his hands to his sides and given them a very light pinch. Tenshi's arms clamped down to his sides as his friend's fingers began to wriggle around, causing him to giggle more.

"Rehe-Reheuehehel! Eeheheheee! What are you-aaAaAhahaha!" Tenshi melted into a puddle of giggles, gently gripping the wrists of his best friend, but not making any effort to push his hands away. He was surprised that Reuel seemed to know exactly what he needed at that moment.

As Reuel's fingers began to explore, Tenshi's squirming picked up. Now, Tenshi was known for essentially becoming a worm on a sidewalk while he was being tickled, so Reuel took the opportunity to gently push his friend down on his back so that he wouldn't break anything or hurt either one of them. Reuel resituated his hands on the sides of Tenshi's ribs, drawing out bundles of happy giggles from the blond. Reuel couldn't help but smile with his friend.

"Tenshi, my hands are having quite a hard time getting around with your arms squashing them, would you mind possibly lifting them up?" Reuel asked, wriggling his hands in the narrow space between Tenshi's ribs and arms. Tenshi sported a wobbly smile as he very slowly lifted his arms from being plastered to his body, only to slam them back down and shriek the second his friend's fingers began to move again.

"Ihihi cahahan't dohohoho thahat!!" Tenshi gently kicked his legs in his giddiness and slight frustration. Reuel grinned evilly and gently gripped one of the blond's wrists.

"Alright, not to worry! I'll help you!" with that, he pinned the one arm over Tenshi's head and scuttled his fingers up and down the unprotected side. Tenshi exploded into laughter, squirming like a worm and playfully trying to catch Reuel's hand. However, his friend was too quick, and avoided every attempt to snatch his hand away by darting it to another spot, also causing Tenshi to fall even deeper into his fit of squeals and laughs.

"EhEHEheheEHE!! REHE-REHEheueHEHEL! S-STAhahaHAP!!" Tenshi tried his best to curl up into a ball, but Reuel easily blocked his legs from protecting him. Despite normally being somewhat malnourished, Tenshi was quite strong, and managed to wrench his arm out of Reuel's grip, eventually covering his stomach to give himself a bit of a breather.

Reuel smiled and lifted his hands for a bit, letting Tenshi catch his breath. He brushed the blond's bangs out of his face to cool down his face a bit. "Heh, you alright there?"

Tenshi nodded, a smile still brightening his face with anticipation and playfulness. He screamed as Reuel decided to shove his hands onto his tummy and scribble around. "EEEEHEHE!! AaaaAAAAA no nohohot theheHEHERE!!"

Tenshi flopped around like a fish, involuntarily trying to twist his body away from his friend's fingers. Reuel simply followed him wherever he went, always managing to keep his fingers tickling along the perfect spot to keep him cackling. As he continued to squirm and shriek, Tenshi eventually managed to flip himself over, blocking Reuel from accessing his sensitive stomach anymore. That was probably his biggest mistake.

Reuel, feeling a bit more mischevous, darted his hand under the back of Tenshi's shirt, as it was now wide open. He snaked his arm up furthur until he reached the spot right between Tenshi's shoulderblades, and began to tickle.

Tenshi SHRIEKED and immediately tried to flip back over to protect his absolute worst spot, but Reuel somehow pinned him down in his face-down position. "REHEHEHEHEEEUEHEHEL!! NOHOHOHOHOHOOO!! NAHAHAT THAAAAHAHAT!!! NAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!! STAAAAHAHAP!!"

"Wow! I didn't know you could even get that loud! ... Oh wait... Yes I did." Reuel used his other hand to scribble along Tenshi's side, which was now exposed due to his harsh squirming. He was planning on stopping soon, seeing as Tenshi was beginning to snort, a sure sign that he should probably lay off soon.

"GAAHAHAHAHAHA!! STAHAP IHIHIT!! YOHOU KNOHOHOHOW IHIHI CAHAHAN'T TAKE IHIHIT THEHEHEHEHEEERE!!!" Tenshi screeched through snorts. "PLEHEHEHEEHEHEASE!!"

The second he heard the 'please', Reuel immediately retracted his hands. He scooted back a bit, checking his friend's face to make sure he was alright. "Are you okay? Did I go too far there?"

Tenshi didn't answer. Instead, he leaped up and shoved Reuel to the bed just as he had done, this time straddling him so that he couldn't get away. Tenshi then dug his fingers into his friend's stomach

"Haha! Gotcha! Wow, you really underestimate my stamina, don't you?" Tenshi exclaimed triumphantly, now bent on tickling the life out of Reuel.

"HAHAHAhahaha! TEH-TEHEnshiHIHIHI! THAHahat wahahas uhuhuncalled fOHOHOR!!"

"What do you mean? You got my worst spot, so it's only fair that I get yours!" Tenshi further pushed his point by blowing a raspberry right in the middle of Reuel's tummy, causing the brunet to shriek.

"STAAHAHAP!! TEHEHENSHIIIHIHI! EEEHEHEHEHEE!!"

Tenshi decided to stop early, still a bit tired from his own tickling. Reuel panted softly as he sat up, readjusting his shirt back to its original neat state. He ruffled Tenshi's hair, happy that his friend seemed to have been successfully cheered up.

"Let me text our group and tell them that we'll be skipping study group today. Aaaand how about we go get you some muffins?" Reuel asked, giggling at his friend's beaming face at the sound of his favorite treat. He quickly texted the group and patted Tenshi's head again, he was glad to have him back again.