#i was gonna do more but i got soooo distracted with art fight

[ladiesngerms]

art based on THIS post :3

[aztecbrujeria]

I wanna do the choso HC if your still doing it

okay so 7 because I just saw miss hill in concert and 14 because that's my song lmaoo

OMGGG YESS OFC BBY!!! And soooo jelly you got to see Ms. Hill I have always wanted to see her perform!!!

You are my first and I hope you love them!!! They are a little Drabbly!

Chosito Style:

7. Doo Wop (That Thing) - Ms. Lauryn Hill (SFW-Fighting for what's right and Romance Novels)

Choso is a man that will stand up for family and he will also stand up for community. It's at the local diner that you meet him as he's talking to his brothers about the fight he'd gotten into with some asshole.

It was here that you learned that he had punched a man that wouldn't take no for an answer while harassing a woman right outside his tattoo shop. His little brother was eating up every word as he recalled with Eso why his knuckles were bruised and why he had to bail him out of the precinct.

You sipped your coffee as you sat behind him and heard the way his smooth baritone seemed to wrap you in a familiar feeling of safety. You knew you could easily walk late a night with him and he wouldn't try any bullshit like other men. You don't know how long you were sitting there eavesdropping and smiling into your giant cup of joe when it was his touch on your shoulder asking for the sugar at your table that made you jump.

You turned to see him, the way ink seemed to be upon his olive skin to his neck. The wonderful crisp lines of a traditional Japanese pattern that ran under his tight black t-shirt. The way his hair framed his perfect face. The piercings on his lips that drew your attention. He chuckled at you and asked once more if he could have the sugar on your table. You weren't distracted by his perfectly manicured black painted fingers...no.

When he sees the text books on the table about art history and also the newest romance novel he points at it and begins to become exited. He asked if you enjoyed the other books by your favorite author and if you liked the way they portrayed the Female Protagonist. This is when you found out Choso loves Romance and Smutty novels. You also found out he likes a good art show in the local galleries supporting the community.

You find out there in the diner not only does Chosito drink his "Respect Women" juice, but that he's active in his community and likes to be the watch dog. You know, just know, that he's got a Medusa tattooed upon his body.

14. Can We Talk - Tevin Campbell- (SFW Record Store and mutual pining)

He sees you through the window of the record store. The moment you hopped onto the counter to grab a couple guitar picks he couldn't help but let his eyes follow the curve of your back to the way your skirt rode up just right to show the back of your smooth legs.

Choso carefully perused the vinyls, half looking for a vintage album, but more taken with how your eyes light up as you laughed. The way your nose crinkled when you were pouting at your co worker. He couldn't help but feel the gravity of his own earth shift the way you tucked your hair behind your ear. He was smitten.

When he checks out, with a handful of vinyls that you had no idea what he was gonna do with, he became so shy when you greeted him with a big grin. He was soft spoken as your painted nails touched his own fingers briefly to take his items to bag them. He wanted to see your perfect lips say his name...he wanted to know how they felt against his own.

Before his mind can go any further you grabbed his big palm and turned it over to place his change in it. You giggled and winked at him as he began to walk out the store. He turned one more time and watched you interacting with a new customer and he felt like he wanted to call out. He walked out into he bustling streets and only thought of you until he found himself alone at the dinner table.

There, while his brothers slept, with just the low light of the kitchen he grabs a note book and can only start and restart writing you a letter to get to know you. He wrote romantic things about how your voice was like music when you spoke. He wrote silly things about how he only goes to that record store for you. He wants to know your name. He filled pages and pages of how he wanted to find out your interests and what food you liked.

He does this for months writing about you and how he wanted nothing more than to take you out...it was the last time he popped into the store for his records that you snapped your head up. He was oblivious that you had come to be excited every week for his shopping because you got to see him and hear how sweet his voice was.

You had fallen for the way his large stature in the shop was juxtaposed by how loud the record store was. It was the way he wore his hair in his space buns or down that drew your gaze to his deep October eyes. The way his perfectly full lips quipped a small smile when he checked out or said hello when he entered. It was the way he one time brought his little brother in and you felt your heart squeeze at the way he took his time and kneeled down to his level to show him about the records he picked and why vinyl was the best sound. He was so handsome and so kind.

He didn't know that you were equally nervous about wanting to know more about him. Choso had no idea that you also sat up at night thinking about how he'd feel to just hug and walk hand in hand with. It was you in the end that asked him for some dinner at your favorite Chinese place after you were off. He blushed and stammered so cutely before you told him to meet you after close to take you out.

[syncogon]

even allies cannot escape the terror that is lord grim. sorry lgn you can go hang out with br in the corner over there

(tka s3 ep10 // ep 34)

i love the alt style / chibis sooo much theyr'e so cute

wu chen my mannn

fuck yeah go jumpin around with that coat over your shoulders not falling off. it's all about the aesthetic.

i do love the scenery of this map it's really nice vibes... reminds me of like 2903854 years ago when they gave us s3 concept art previews

HELL yeah swimming time

HELL YEAH rwby weiss vibes... sigh s3 truly not as good as past seasons for grabbing screencaps (sometimes the quality just goes wayyyy down??) but that won't stop me from trying ig

ahhh they gave our girl some crisper shots though! look it her

ahhhhhh wc faces 🤣

// taking notes on their eyes

this shot was made to be screenshotted but i shall oblige - NOT THE SCREEN SHAKING EFFECT WITH BLURRY CLOSEUP LMAOOOOOO god

i do wish we got more wuc characterization before the fight but ig in canon that was mostly afterward anyway...

now let's see them devote all of one minute to this fight sigh

oh yeah. teamwork makes the dream work. truly i don't see how this was necessary or game-realistic in anyway but i appreciate creativity in fight choreo...

nitpicking but they really got different voice actors (one F one M) to voice two messages that onscreen are sent by the same account

okok we'll save the lg glamour shot

i was gonna make some scathing comment about how they're being way too blatant about saving budget depicting the fuckin chat fight instead of the real fight (this bit REALLY dragged on way too long) but then i too got distracted by our goddess

i'll always enjoy the magenta/black depiction of wc's magic

anyway back to fight at hand. why oh why are some parts just blurry. is it just on youtube? if i was on a diff platform would it be better? it's like they overcompressed when exporting or something.

not them animating scrolling comments to roast mf 😭

man. the eds are just soooo good. the love in them is so clear and it just makes it even sadder that the donghua itself turned out like this...

[deus-ex-mona]

the sheer ridiculousness of yujiro’s vampire costume is ✨finally✨ hitting me

like… boi??? literally no one will be able to see the kissmark with your collar in the way?? you just wanted to be kissed, didn’t you?👁

[outsiderslamb]

Maybe please get Stevebit at the carnival and smooches and giggles and 🥺 pleaseeeee ilysm you don’t understand ahhhh no rush at all *floof your hair*!🙏

CAS THIS TOOK ME SO LONG I’M SO SORRY!!

Carnivals

Steve-bit, fluff & mild angst

Bittersweet, unrequited(?) love, ambiguous ending

As he stared, chewing absentmindedly on a candied apple, the saturated colors of the tents, flashes of light of the signs, and blurs of motion from the rides of the carnival slowly blended into nothing but a multi-colored blur in the background of his thoughts; but he could see every detail of Steve perfectly, like the way the candy coating the apple dripped from his plump lips as it melted in the sun and stuck to his teeth. Two-bit felt his heart start to race as thoughts of kissing the sticky mess right off filled his head.

He was shaken from his thoughts by a hard nudge in the ribs from Steve.

"Hey, get a load of the kid," Steve said, a smirk playing the lips Two-bit had just been admiring.

"Which kid?" Two-bit asked, his head still fuzzy from the warm thoughts swimming around up there.

Steve raised an eyebrow at him, then reached out and grabbed Two-bit's chin with his hand, turning his head to look over by a concession stand; where one Ponyboy Curtis was talking to a girl who looked to be at least eighteen years old.

Two-bit shrugged, he remembered being fourteen once and in love with every pretty lady that walked by. For all he knew the kid was dipping his toes in the art of flirting, and even though that would probably only result in a condescending smile and a pat on the head, it was still nice to see little Pony following in his big brother's footsteps.

But Steve didn't seem to share this sentiment.

In fact, the seventeen-year-old stood up from his seat so fast that Two-bit nearly fell out of the cheap plastic chair he was resting on, and marched right over to the flirting senior and the awkwardly giggling freshmen.

As Two-bit jumped up to follow, quickly thinking of something he could say to diffuse the situation, Steve had shoved himself in-between a now sputtering Ponyboy and a pissed-off woman.

"Lanie, he's a fucking kid!" Steve snarled, reaching his arm out to tuck Ponyboy safely behind him as if he were protecting the kid from a stabber.

Lanie rolled her eyes, "Calm your ass down, Steve," she was dressed rather conservatively despite the weather, which was usual for her.

Two-bit remembered that she helped him cheat on an English test a few months ago, as he was held back and she'd already graduated; while they weren't good friends, he didn't want to believe she would purposefully try to creep on Ponyboy.

"Hey, Steve-O, Lanie didn't mean nothing by it," Two-bit tried to defend, standing by Lanie, "You didn't even hear what they said."

Pony finally piped up, "It wasn't anything bad, I promise! She was just saying I look like Sodapop," he awkwardly was shifting his feet around, face flushed and looking a little guilty.

Steve huffed, he didn't seem satisfied, but that wasn't an uncommon thing for people to tell Ponyboy.

Lanie seemed annoyed. "Are you his parents now? Honestly, Steve, you aren't a knight in shining armor, just mind your damn business for once."

Steve balled his fists, "It is my business if I think a little kid is gonna get preyed on by some old hag!"

"JESUS CHRIST, ALL THEY DID WAS TALK!" Two-bit finally snapped, at his wits end with the stupid conversation. He liked Steve, he really truly did, but sometimes his protective nature was overbearing.

Steve looked at Two-bit, a little shocked. Two-bit flinched at how hurt he looked. He opened his mouth to say something, then seemed to decide against it. Jamming his fists into his pockets he stepped down.

"Ponyboy, stay with us," Steve said as Pony started to wander off after Lanie left.

Pony groaned. "Steve I'm old enough to be on my own, c'mon!"

Two-bit gave Steve a quick nudge. "Hey, hey, let the kid go, he's fine on his own."

Steve looked like he wanted to argue, but clearly not wanting a repeat of what just happened he shrugged. "Fine. But don't talk to strangers." he conceded.

Ponyboy smiled at Two-bit, and Two-bit shot him a wink, then he ran off to go get into trouble somewhere else.

Two-bit sighed and looked beside him at Steve. "Hey, now. what was that about?" he asked softly, remembering that Steve had a similar outburst over Sylvia talking to Johnny, only that time he threatened to get violent.

Steve shook his head, scrunching up his nose like he always did when he was uncomfortable. "I just... I just don't want him getting hurt." was all he said, and Two-bit knew he wasn't going to get any more out of him.

Two-bit wasn't good with touchy-feely shit, never had been and probably never would be, but what he lacked in ability to dig to the root of the problem he more than made up for in ability to distract from the pain.

"Soooo, wanna go hunt some action?" he asked with a hearty chuckle, savoring the smile that got from Steve.

"Yeah, yeah I do." Steve said.

----------

The park would close after midnight, but right now, the sky was filled with a bright orange glow, turning the trees on the horizon to inky shadows. Two-bit didn't stop to admire though, he just ran beside Steve through the crowd away from the clerk they had antagonized into chasing them.

It was fair, in Two-bit's opinion, seeing as the guy had taunted them over losing a rigged game. But unfortunately, the chase ended early when the clerk decided he didn't want to chase anymore and went back to his job. That sucked, Two-bit was hoping there'd be a fight.

"God, I'm beat." Steve said, stretching his arms out, nearly making Two-bit drool as he watched the way they flexed. "Wanna do something more relaxing before we head back?"

Two-bit's nodded as he gestured to the Ferris wheel, "We could rest up there, maybe we can scout out the others from the height." He said.

Steve's eyes got wide when he saw just how tall it was. "Are you sure?" He asked, taking a step back as though intimidated.

Two-bit cocked a rusty brow, watching Steve avert his eyes from the ferris wheel. “Ya good?” He asked, breaking the brief silence.

Steve nodded jerkily, his dark hair bouncing. “Yeah! No worries! I just don’t wanna lose my lunch.” He said, waving a hand dismissively.

Two-bit smirked, shaking his head, “Alright, whatever you say.”

After walking together in silence for a little while, they found a nice place in the grass to sit and watch the sun sink below the tree line. It was in between the space of two rides that had already shut down for the evening, so there was plenty of privacy. As the buildings they were sat in between turned black in the growing darkness, the sky turned gold.

Steve shivered from where he sat cross-legged on the grass, his denim vest doing nothing against the cold chill, so Two-bit draped his leather jacket over the other boy’s shoulder’s gently, basking in the red flush that came across his cheeks.

“Sooo,” Two-bit began as Steve tiredly leaned against him, “What was that back there? You wanna tell me now?”

He tensed as he waited for Steve response, feeling the boy’s muscles tighten at the question.

“I just... Don’t want Ponyboy getting hurt.” Steve said softly.

Two-bit considered prying, after all, Steve had threatened Sylvia when he thought she was attempting to harass Johnny (a mistake that left Steve terrified of the girl), but the way Steve’s body went taut and he bit down into his lips made Two-bit’s heart break a little. Even if it meant getting into the root of the problem, he didn’t want his friend to be hurting like that.

The silence grew from tense to comfortable as the pair leaned against each other, no words needing to be spoken. When Two-bit was about to ask if they should start looking for the others, he heard the gentle sound of snoring from Steve.

Two-bit woke him up, of course, but not before pressing a tiny kiss to his cloud of dark hair.

[rivalsforlife]

I DIDNT KNOW YOU WERE DOING COMMENTARY hope it's not too late to ask for The Scene at the end of chapter 5 of the catch up game?? if no one else has asked?

It is never too late to ask!! Genuinely you could probably ask me six months from now and I’ll ramble on about all this, I’m generally down to talk about my writing all the time. (And I’m actually a little surprised nobody asked about The Scene yet... oh well haha)

First though: have you seen this art yet? If you haven’t you should. It was going around twitter again lately and I love it a lot so I wanted to advertise it while I had the chance.

Anyways, keeping under a “keep reading” here:

So. The Scene. First I’ll present my notes from the outline when I was trying to figure out this fic:

Miles lets his feelings slip, Phoenix doesn’t take it too well, they part on a kind of awkward note.

Somehow “kind of an awkward note” ended up being uhhh that!

Anyways before we get into this I want to say that I really did not think it would have that much of an emotional impact? I got a much bigger reaction than I thought and that’s around when people really started talking about it on the narumitsu discord and stuff, so I ended up for the rest of the week soooo stressed out that I’d accidentally gone in a completely different direction than I’d planned and set people’s expectations too high and they would be COMPLETELY DISAPPOINTED IN THE REST OF THE FIC but uh luckily that didn’t happen! I think. At least if anyone was super disappointed they didn’t tell me about it!

And it was probably partially that I am not very uhh good with emotions and also probably that I got pretty desensitized to my work but I genuinely did not think it was that bad until I saw Ro’s art and then went “ohhh suddenly I am consumed with so much guilt...” (and also doubted how in character this scene was. how can ANYONE say no to that face --)

Most critically though, this scene distracted everyone from whatever the hell was going on with the casefic earlier in the chapter, so overall I think it’s a success.

Sorry it’s taking a while to get to the actual scene, but I wrote a few drafts of this thing beforehand and modified it a lot trying to get it right. I needed it to be sufficiently dramatic but I didn’t want it to seem like... I was just adding it in there for extra conflict? Like you know sometimes you read stuff and you’re like “where the hell did this sudden argument come from” yeah. I wanted to avoid that if I could, so partially this was supported by the weight of chapter 4 to explain Phoenix’s reasons for the rejection and then chapter 6 is supposed to elaborate more, but I still needed this to stand fairly well on its own.

The overall theme of this chapter was “Opposites”, and again, here’s what I had in my fic notes:

I want to contrast how Phoenix sees Miles and how Miles sees Phoenix. Because they both kind of see each other as an amazing person while seeing themselves as failures. Maybe at the end Phoenix is kind of putting himself down and Miles argues about it and then they have a slight argument. Miles lets his feelings slip, Phoenix doesn’t take it too well, they part on a kind of awkward note.

I couldn’t really find a way to integrate this conversation in naturally, so I could only get Phoenix’s perspective in there a little bit. Originally Miles’ confession wasn’t supposed to be planned, just a spur of the moment in the middle of an argument where Phoenix kind of goes “I don’t understand why you keep hanging out with me, why are you spending so much time with me, I’m not struggling, I don’t need you worrying about me” and Miles interrupts with a “Because I love you, you idiot!” ... But I couldn’t get that to work because the buildup into the argument felt too abrupt. 

Last little bit of something just before the argument (some of the dialogue here went into the chapter 4 dinner conversation instead):

Miles: (quietly) I’ve spent most of my life trying to climb higher in my career, in order to fight corruption as best I could. And I have, and every day my mission is growing closer to completion, or at least as much as it can. But after that… (staring at some kids’ toy) what’s left for me? I’ve taken a rather unconventional path through life. I’m starting to wonder about opportunities I’ve missed.

Phoenix: (jokingly) Is that some long-winded way of telling me you’re planning on settling down?

Miles: I’d never settle. But in some sense, I suppose so.

Phoenix: (stopping in his tracks) You’re kidding. L-Like, what, in a year or so I’m gonna walk in to your office one day and find you with a wife and kids?

Miles: (rolling his eyes) You do know that I’m gay, don’t you? And why would I keep them in my office? There’s no need to be so melodramatic, Wright.

Again couldn’t fit it in I just found it funny. ANYWAYS FINALLY MOVING AWAY FROM THE DRAFTS AND TO THE ACTUAL THING, I’ll skip ahead a bit to just before the confession:

“How long has it been since I came here?” 

“I dunno… since before I got my badge back, probably.”

“That sounds about right.” Edgeworth sighed and leaned against Phoenix’s desk. “I’ve barely gotten the chance to see you, since you got your badge back and I took my new position. I’ve missed going up against you in court.”

“I don’t,” Phoenix teased, slipping his case notes into his desk drawer. “You’re a nightmare.”

“You’re one to talk.” The corners of Edgeworth’s eyes crinkled as he looked over at him. “You can be so infuriating, but I do like working with you. I had fun today.”

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. “Fun? You?”

“I suppose age has softened me up.”

“I didn’t think anything could soften you up.”

“You’d be surprised. I often have fun when I’m with you. I always…” He trailed off, averting his eyes and gripping his elbow. “I’ve been… thinking, a bit. On our earlier conversation.”

So basically... Miles got preeetty close to confessing during their dinner in chapter 4, but kinda backed out at the last moment, and he’s been agonizing over this ever since. Because the way he interpreted their conversation was sort of “We both want to move forward into a relationship but don’t know how to take the steps to do so”, whereas Phoenix interpreted more as a consensus that “We could probably start a relationship and there are feelings there but it wouldn’t really work out so we just won’t ever talk about it”.

And Miles throughout this fic assumed that Phoenix has been in love with him for a while and only holding back for Miles’ own sake, and waiting for Miles to signal that he’s actually ready to move into a romantic relationship. ... Which is very much not the case. What makes today different though is that Miles got to watch Phoenix solve mysteries, and I’m of the opinion that Miles considers Phoenix at his most attractive when he is uncovering the truth!! so Miles pretty much just saw him solve this case and go “I must kiss this man on the lips Right Now” but thought he should clear some things up before he did that.

which is good because if he just walked up to Phoenix and kissed him without preamble I’m pretty sure Phoenix would have died, so.

Something imperceptibly changed in the atmosphere. It made Phoenix’s heart race faster in anticipation. “Oh? Which one?”

“The one we had during the last dinner we shared.”

“O-Oh.” That had been weeks ago. Surely Phoenix had forgotten something.

“Everything has changed so much, over the course of my career, between us.” Edgeworth’s eyes flickered up to him briefly before settling back down on the desk. “I’ve never been afraid of moving forward, but this, I want…” He exhaled, shakily. “Give me a minute. This is… difficult.”

Phoenix kind of... knows, subconsciously, where this is going, but he’s trying to deny it until the last minute because he’s very unprepared and has no idea how to deal with this... which will become very clear by the end of the scene.

Miles is tricky to write in a confession scene because he can be kind of weird with emotions? Sometimes he’ll give these Grand Speeches about how much That Man means to him but at the same time he struggled a lot with talking about his feelings during the trilogy and I think he’d still struggle with it now. Especially something as raw and vulnerable as a love confession.

And Miles is also someone who is, at least by the Investigations duology, determined to pursue what is Right and what is the Truth without any sort of hesitation. However pursuing Wright is different. (insert horrible forced laugh track)

“W-Well, don’t strain yourself,” Phoenix insisted. “We can talk another day. I-It’s getting late, after all, we should —”

“We should stop dancing around the issue.” Edgeworth’s eyes snapped up and locked with Phoenix’s, pinning him in place. “Don’t go easy on me now, of all times.”

oh man I have to admit I got really into Persona 5 Royal for like a few weeks around the time I was writing this and that “don’t go easy on me now of all times” is looosely inspired by a similar line in there that’s like “do you think I’d be happy with being shown mercy now, of all times?” because although it’s a different dynamic than narumitsu I was uh. intrigued.

... sorry it’s so vague I wanted to avoid spoilers anyways, moving on,

Phoenix’s mouth ran dry. Edgeworth couldn’t possibly be planning to —

“Everything has changed between us,” continued Edgeworth. “I want things to — to continue to change, I-I want to be closer, is—” He sucked a breath in through his teeth “— is it not obvious?”

Hadn’t they agreed, in that way they could agree without saying a word, that they were never going to talk about this?

Phoenix broke his gaze. “No. It’s not. I— I don’t want to argue with you. It’s late.”

Pretty much same as previous notes: Phoenix in extreme denial that this is actually happening whereas Miles is just trying to force it all out.

Phoenix is kind of trying to talk Miles down from confessing; Miles is sort of interpreting it as “Wright isn’t going to let me get away with not actually saying this so I need to be more direct.” 

I’m sure that later when Miles is curled up on his bed wondering where he went wrong he’ll think of that :)

“Phoenix.”

The use of his first name forced Phoenix to look up again.

Edgeworth stared at him for a long time. There was something impossible swimming just under the surface of his grey eyes.

“Phoenix Wright,” he said. “I am in love with you.”

HE DID IT!! He’s so brave I’m sure that nothing can go wrong!!

Gossip was one thing. Lingering touches and stolen glances, Phoenix could deal with those. The knowledge that Edgeworth was interested in him in a not-so-platonic way… that was more than enough.

This, hearing Edgeworth say the words out loud, was another thing entirely. Even if Phoenix already knew. Nothing could have prepared him for — for whatever this was, for Edgeworth, looking at him all open and vulnerable, and — and saying —

“Wh… What…?”

Edgeworth tilted his head slightly to the side, causing his bangs to fall into his face. “Surely you’ve figured it out already?”

“I-I don’t understand…”

At first there was a line right after “Even if Phoenix already knew” that was “Even if he felt the same”, but then I decided to make it so Phoenix can’t even admit his feelings to himself, so I cut that one out.

Anyways this is shocking to Phoenix partially because of Denial but also because he didn’t expect Miles to actually come out and say something like this. He’s used to Miles being closed off with his emotions and doesn’t think him the type to ever directly acknowledge them, so it’s got him totally off guard, too. It’s unpredictable for someone who is supposed to know Miles so well so it’s very unnerving for him.

“I… I think you are incredible,” said Edgeworth. “Your single-minded dedication to truth and justice. Your compassion. Your mercy. The way you… brought light, brought life, back into my world. You can be so frustrating, and stubborn, but that’s part of why I have always admired you so much.” The corners of his eyes softened. “You saved me a thousand times over, and I want to spend the rest of my life by your side… however you want me.”

Miles generally people go on at least one date before proposing marriage but okay.

One thing I find interesting about Miles as a character is that he’s very much an all-or-nothing kind of person... he doesn’t ever really half-ass things and he doesn’t know how to do things gradually haha. He won’t allow the truth to be covered in darkness for even a moment even if it makes things easier for him in the long run. Saying “I think you’re great, maybe we should go on a few dates and see how things end up?” is probably the SENSIBLE thing to say, but Miles puts 100% of himself into everything that he does post-character development; and he’s secure enough in his relationship with Phoenix that he doesn’t really feel the need to test the waters. Plus Miles is allergic to uncertainty, so by the time he confesses he’d need to be absolutely certain that he loved Phoenix Wright and was prepared to pretty much go all in with him.

after all Phoenix feels the same way right!!

Phoenix stared. His heartbeat was reverberating in his ears. “I don’t know what to say. … Me.”

“Who else?”

“Who — a-anyone else. God, Edgeworth, what even is that shit, about me being i-intelligent, and dedicated, and compassionate, and — and — incredible, geez, I’m a wreck! I—” His voice wavered into a fit of near hysteria. “The only reason I’ve gotten this far is ‘cause I’ve always had amazing people by my side, and — and once they’re gone I’m back to whatever I usually am, I-I only have this one suit, I still haven’t got my freaking driver’s license, I don’t think I’ve eaten anything but instant meals in a month—”

(And he looked to Edgeworth, desperately, but Edgeworth was still gazing at him, expression gentle, gentle yet unyielding, not taking back his words or expressing an ounce of regret — why wasn’t he changing his mind —)

“You’re describing yourself more than me,” said Phoenix weakly. “Really, I’m not — I’m not like that, okay, I’m not…” He forced himself to take a deep breath. “Why are you telling me this?”

This is the one part that stayed consistent throughout all drafts of this scene haha. Some of it is echoes from what Godot told him back in Bridge to the Turnabout about him always needing someone to swoop in at the last minute to the rescue; others are sort of a loose refence to his behaviour during the beginning of RFTA and Reunion and Turnabout where he couldn’t really function without Maya there to look after.

This part sort of ties more into that objective I had with this chapter of contrasting how they see themselves; they both see each other as incredible people, because they don’t really get to see inside each other and see how much of a wreck they feel.

Also the very first sort of script of this confession had Phoenix saying “I thought you knew me better than this!” but that just seemed way too cruel for this haha.

“I know that I… that I have difficulty with these things,” said Edgeworth, fingers gripping the edge of the desk. “I’ve never been the most open of people and we’ve — we’ve always been so distant, for so long. I wasn’t there for you when I should have been, and I want that to change. Because, ever since we met… you’ve been such a major part of my life. I never thought I would live to be older than my father. I never thought I would be happy with myself. But you, you came into my life, and you changed all that.”

(That wasn’t you,) a voice in Phoenix’s heart whispered. (You only started it. The rest was all him.)

“But I don’t want to be satisfied with what I have right now. I still want more. There’s still a part of life I want to explore, and… I want to do it with you.”

(He’s always been fine without you. One day he’s going to realize it too, and then…)

“I’m tired of hiding my emotions and being too afraid to upset the status quo when it comes to relationships. I refuse to be scared of that anymore.”

(Why isn’t he scared, too?)

ugh this was the hardest part to write I think...? Trying to figure out a way to get Phoenix’s internal feelings across where it doesn’t come out of nowhere. I settled with a lot of internal thoughts that are just like... self-loathing, pretty much.

Meanwhile Miles has prepared this whole emotional monologue that Phoenix is only half listening to, basically about what a huge impact Phoenix has had in his life and how he’s sort of... now that he’s presumably made large steps to fixing the justice system he’s turning to more personal goals in life, and one of those goals is spending his life with Phoenix, if he can be brave enough to do it.

Phoenix isn’t paying attention though because he’s too busy panicking...

“Most of all, I… I couldn’t hide anything from you for long. I’d trust you with the world. You’re my equal, and my opposite.” Something resembling a shaky smile crossed Edgeworth’s face. “And I love you.”

me shoving the “theme of the day” in there awkwardly

But he smiles!! This is one of the rare occasions where Miles kind of does smile... there’s a lot of “almost-smile”s or brief smiles and Miles is scared out of his wits here but he’s happy. he finally got that off his chest. he was brave and he told Phoenix how he felt and they’ll be so, so happy together, nothing can possibly go wrong,

The words knocked out any breath Phoenix had managed to regain. His skin suddenly felt cold and clammy, and he was faced with vertigo more intense than standing on rooftops. What was happening to him?

There was something he was supposed to say to this. He should react to this normally. His mouth was drier than a desert. His tongue felt unsightly and awkward in his mouth.

“I shouldn’t have to tell you that if I have somehow misinterpreted, I won’t mention this again.” Unease and uncertainty flickered behind Edgeworth’s eyes. “And I would never be upset, as long as you tell me the truth. I want to take the next steps of my life with you. … Do you feel the same way?”

oh yeah this part was a little tricky too. Pretty much Phoenix is on the verge of a full-blown panic attack and cannot think of a response, even a nice polite rejection... and finally Miles starts realizing that something’s off, because before he was just running on adrenaline to try and get his feelings out that he didn’t stop to examine Phoenix’s reactions, otherwise he would’ve started overthinking and psyched himself out. But now that he got it out and seeing Phoenix pretty much in shock he’s starting to worry he’d made a mistake.

Also “unease and uncertainty” is definitely an “unnecessary feelings” reference because I’m shameless.

Yes, Phoenix wanted to say, yes, I do, and say what he felt, what he wanted. But the words wouldn’t come.

Why couldn’t he say it? It should be easy. If he truly wanted this, it should be as easy as breathing.

His vision swam with pink butterflies, he ran his tongue over the scars in his mouth, his breath caught jagged on the edges of chains —

Aaaand if either one of them had the magatama right now there would be the psyche-locks! I was gonna elaborate on this a lot but this is so far waaay longer than I intended so I’ll spare you and give a brief summary.

Essentially there are three locks. I wrote them as sort of representing each issue that Phoenix needs to acknowledge for them to break -- not necessarily fix, because that would be a super tricky thing, but acknowledging they’re there is a start. They’re pretty much “Trust”, “Abandonment”, and “Vulnerability”. Later I realized those issues are pretty much tied up in each other so instead I just made it so that each one is set by a traumatic event, and then acknowledging those events is what breaks them.

The first is an obvious “Dahlia and Iris really screwed up Phoenix’s ability to trust a partner romantically”. I love Iris but she really did mess him up as well. Phoenix kind of convinced himself he’s over this issue now since Iris was a good person! but really he’s still messed up about it. (And that’s where the butterflies + scars in his mouth sort of come from). Talking to Iris and acknowledging that he’s still hurting over it is what breaks this one.

The second is more directly related to all the times Miles himself has abandoned him particularly throughout the series. Some of the hurt when Miles prosecuted him in Turnabout Sisters, and definitely a lot regarding “Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth Chooses Death”, it’s pretty much him being scared to get /too/ attached to Miles because he fears Miles might abandon him again. This one breaks in chapter 7 when he has the whole realization that Miles might die and leave him regardless, and acknowledges how afraid he is of Miles leaving again.

And the last is more of acknowledging his need to be needed by people and help people but they move on without him and not don’t really him in their lives. This built up more gradually... with littler things like Apollo leaving the Agency and Maya not being around as much and Trucy moving out. Neither of these are Big Bad Traumatic Events like the other two but it’s still an issue Phoenix has that he needs to acknowledge. Trucy’s letter breaks this one by telling him he’s never going to be alone and they all love him and are there for him. And that’s why right after reading the letter he can tell Miles that he loves him.

So that’s that. Moving back to the actual story now...

“Phoenix?”

Edgeworth still stood so close, too close, and when Phoenix breathed his senses were assaulted by the scent of his cologne and — and he was too close, and his words were too much, Edgeworth couldn’t be in love with him. Attracted, sure, but love — how could he so easily say love?

This wasn’t like Edgeworth. This wasn’t how things were before, this wasn’t how things had always been, every time things changed too fast something would go wrong, every time things changed too fast Edgeworth would leave again —

(— and right now Edgeworth’s body was coiled tight with tension, like a spring, ready to take off at any sudden movement —)

— and Phoenix couldn’t say a word.

Fairly self-explanatory I think: basically acknowledging that fear that Miles is going to leave again.

Phoenix was standing on the edge of a turnabout. Somewhere he’d have to take the plunge for victory, for the truth. He’d never shied from them before. He’d always accepted the risks. And they’d (almost always) paid off.

But something had Phoenix in a vice. Dark chains that wrapped around his chest and constricted his lungs. Something that would drown him if he took the plunge. Something that whispered that he could not risk this, his heart and his life in one. There was too much to lose. It was all too much.

That little (almost always) there is referencing that one time he presented the critical case-changing evidence and got disbarred for it; his disbarment messed him up pretty bad too, I guess it’d fit in the category of the third psyche-lock.

And of course the second paragraph references the psyche-locks more directly before they actually show up.

The words came. They weren’t the ones he wanted.

“No,” said Phoenix. “No, I don’t.”

The rattling in Phoenix’s head cut out. Silence fell over the room.

Pretty much once Phoenix stops pressing the issue the psyche-locks stop shaking. I imagine they’re a pretty terrible thing to break directly; he can’t do it on his own like this.

“... I see,” said Edgeworth, and something snapped shut, drew tight, rigid, back to a statue. “I thought… nevermind.”

Miles kind of draws back into himself all tightly-controlled, less open than before, because that really hurt him a lot. He’d probably prefer it than Phoenix being all evasive and sort of reassuring because he prefers people just cut straight to the facts, but that was direct even for him.

And of course he thought that Phoenix did feel that way about him. He was certain of it. So hearing Phoenix didn’t and he was completely wrong is... not good.

He’d gone so still. At the sight of it, whatever spell was holding Phoenix in its grasp broke, and he came back to reality — this wasn’t right, this wasn’t good, he had to fix this, somehow, bring things back to the way they were, “Edgeworth—”

And the sight of Miles completely freezing up and closing himself off is enough to break Phoenix free of the initial panic, because he does care a lot about Miles, and seeing him withdraw worries him.

“It’s getting late,” said Edgeworth, and only someone as experienced as Phoenix could detect the waver in his voice. “Thank you for being honest with me, Wright. I’ll talk to you later.”

The remark stung worse than a knife would, he couldn’t let it end like this. “I—”

The office door shut, none too gently. Phoenix was alone.

“... I’m sorry.”

That “thank you for being honest with me” wasn’t SUPPOSED to be a jab, of course, because Miles would prefer that Phoenix was honest than lie to him. But Phoenix did lie and that’s what bothers Phoenix the most throughout the next couple of chapters; they both value the truth so highly that lying to each other is inconceivable.

And Miles probably should have stuck around for a bit and heard Phoenix out and maybe Phoenix could have managed a half-decent explanation of “okay I don’t know what that was but this was very sudden and I’m panicking, can you give me time to process?” but if Miles stayed for much longer he probably would have started breaking down and that’s the last thing he wants to do right now, especially in front of Phoenix, so he left as soon as possible.

I think he managed to repress enough that he could get home safely, but the moment he crossed the threshold into privacy he probably had himself a good cry... curled up on the couch and watched some Steel Samurai with a tub of ice cream... but he was pretty emotionally devastated by this. It took a lot of effort for him to open up and be honest about his feelings so just being shut down like that... hurt a lot. He’d never admit it though.

anyways I also have this short bit of writing I posted a while back about Miles actually getting a hug after all this, because he really needs one.

And that’s the scene!! I think I said more than enough so I’ll end it here haha.

[goddamnmuses-a]

Dan Watches: Star Wars: Episode I -The Phantom Menace

So.. I got the idea of writing my thoughts up as I go basically as they get to the Gungan city so.. i’ll try and remember my thoughts before that and then I’ll do it kinda live. Under the cut cus long. 

Alright.. So the opening crawl was very.. politics which to be honest as i’ve got older I actually kind of enjoy that side of Star Wars but it doesn’t really add anyhting to the actual film because I think everything thats in it could be picked up by just watching the film. 

I kinda like the battle droids.. weird soft spot for them. I like the big ship ones too and Droidekas i thought were the coolest shit ever when i was a kid and i stand by that. 

I’m not all that bothered by the racial stereotypes because like.. i’m not the races they’re sterotyping but i can see why it’d be problematic.

Jar Jar isn’t as annoying as everyone makes him out to be.. don’t get me wrong.. he’s annoying.. but he’s not cancer. 

Aesthetically the Gungan City is pretty cool, giant underwater bubble city.. i bet there’s cool fan art of it somewhere. 

Alright now we’re live.. The duck things the Gungans ride are weird. 

Do Gungans like JarJar eventually become the giant Green guy? .. I googled apparently they’re just two different races of Gungan despite looking like totally different Aliens.

It’s nice that all races are like “Life debt? Oh yeah thats a legit thing.”

Gungans speak like English or Common or.. i forget the Star Wars term.. Basic? is their second language.. but it isnt. 

Yooo Qui Gon just made JarJar go to sleep using the force.. Why is Force Sleep not a thing in more stuff... gotta keep an eye out for that now. 

Naboo is pretty.

Padme is so extra, she’s in her iconic red dress that’s already extra as fuck and then sees that she’s been captured and is like “Alright.. but first.. wardrobe change!” and then shows up in some black number. I’m not sure if at this point she’s actually Padme or if Padme is pretending to be one of her servants now but either way she had a costume change and nobody questions it so she must be having costume changes all the time. 

When Qui Gon force pushes two battle droids theres a really weird sound effect that sounds like it belongs in a mario game. 

Pretty sure Padme is the handmaid now and this new Queen should take the opportunity to be like “Yoo peace out bitches.” Then we get Keira Knightley’s adventures in Star Wars.

Also who was she before this swaparoo? Was she a handmaid and just suddenly got promoted to queen? Like she could be saying all sorts of shit. I know she gets revealed later on but think of how much she could do whilst Padme is away. 

The first words ever spoken to R2 in Star Wars, chronologically, (although inderectly) are “Hello Boyos”. Just sit with that. 

The first words spoken to him directly are “How rude.” which seems about right tbf with how sassy he is. 

Darth Maul is awesome. 

Keira Knightly or Sabe (I looked it up) is like “Yo actual queen, clean that droid!” i think she just wanted to feel more powerful than the actual queen there, little power trip. 

Nice Poncho Qui Gon. Cal approves. 

I wonder how long Padme took to convince the others to let her go off alone with Qui Gon and Jar Jar and R2 (Dunno why R2 joins them?) on a planet thats ruled by the Hutts

I kinda like Watto.. not as a person.. he just amuses me.

Kinda cool that Anakin can speak Huttese, wish he spoke it more often.. just cursing in Huttese as Obi Wan tries to teach him stuff. 

“Are you an Angel.” Smooooth kid. Smoooth, you’re gonna get with her. Despite her being way older than you. They couldn’t have just made him the same age as her? 

Toydarians should be used for more things, especially involving force users. 

Anakin. The slave. Is like “Here Qui Gon, you’ll like this food.” and he’s just like “Cheers” and pockets it for later. Dude. Try it. 

I really hope they do go into more High Republic stuff next, give me a Destiny-type game where you play as a Jedi with your mates. 

Quigons like “You must have Jedi reflexes to race pods” Then he catches Jar Jars tongue in a blink of an eye and Anakins like “You’re a Jedi Knight aren’t you?” And Qui-Gon is like “What makes you think that?” ...? .. You just fucking.. God damn it Qui-Gon. 

Anakin: “No one can kill a Jedi”. Palpatine: “Hold my Blue milk.”

I feel like im becoming fluent in Gungan broken basic which is worrying. 

Anakins mom whos name i’ve literally just forgot is like “He was meant to help you.” ... bitch.. what? Why does nobody question that? 

WHY DOES JAR JARS MOUTH MOVE WITH OTHER PEOPLES LINES!? ... Darth Jar Jar.  #PlagueisTheWiseWasAGungan. I mean not rly but seriously.. that would have been a really cool plot twist. 

Jar Jar got numbed and got his hand stuck.. so like.. perhaps not.. otherwise you’re playing a little too dumb mate. 

The look of worry from Shmi, good stuff. 

The two Headed announcer speaking basic and Huttese is pretty smart like, the one doing one and the other doing the other. 

What the fuck is Clegg Holdfast?

What the fuck are any of these races? Like.. where are these races throughout the rest of the franchise? 

Crazy that lightly bending that one part of the podracer can fuck it up so bad. 

Who the fuck is that other Hutt? Oh yeah I’m watching the like updated version with Geroge Lucas’ “Fixes” in it. Probably should have said that earlier. 

I cant remember if this is true but I’m pretty sure Qui-Gon knows Padme is the Queen and is just fucking with her at this point. 

Man Pod Racing is cool, fuck whoever says it isnt. 

Gimmie an updated Pod Racing ps4 game.

What the fuck is that long thin alien thats selling food to the crowd? Gimmie a Jedi version of him. 

Havent commented in a while because i just kept watching it tbh.

Coruscant looks cool. Still want more High Republic stuff. 

What the fuck is that driver alien, he looks in pain to exist. 

“There is no civility, there is only politics” The Chancellor code. 

Is it too late to call a vote of no confidence on Palpatine? 

I see you there in the background Yaddle. Get it girl. 

Fuck me the added extra of this long neck ass Jedi Master is so distracting. 

Where Jaro Tapal at tho?

You’d think after Padme’s like “Surprise bitch it’s me” moment coming up the Jedi would be like “Well shit.. maybe we’re less aware of things than we think... Yoda.. are you just a short human painted green?” 

Amedala... So extra with these outfits. I get that she’s a Queen but Jesus. 

Eyyyyyyyyyyyy it’s ET. 

Qui-Gon is such a bad boy. 

I kinda get why Jedi take kids when they’re really young, so they can’t remember their parents so they aren’t constantly worried about their parents and then fall to the dark side... doesn’t make it any nicer though. 

My vote went to Bail Antilles. 

To be fair not training Anakin could have been very bad. He could have like gone even more Darkside and Palpatine could swooped in and trained him himself completely. 

Maul is barely in this but fuck is he still cool. 

You know what I don’t hate Midichlorians. They’re just like atoms that stick to certain people and thats what gives them access to the force, it doens’t really change anything it’s just a scientific explination. 

You know what.. During the middle of the film, Jar Jar keeps his mouth shut and just lets people get on with it, that’s alright. 

How old is Obiwan supposed to be in this film? 

A little more variation in these creepy ass gungans would be nice. 

Damn the Viceroy and the other guy are huge or Maul is smol. 

Love that Gungan dindgeridoo horn thing. 

I also love the giant bubble shields. 

Are they watching a Star Wars battle tactics pc game on that screen?

Fuck The Darth Maul fight is badass. 

I don’t buy Anakin at all, he wants to fly out there and get involved, the little shit. 

Quigon doesnt even flip when he jumps, he’s just like “I’m too old for this shit.”

Yeah R2 is like “Go back” and Anakins like “Naaa fuck that”... Tut tut. Boys gonna be trouble.

The way Maul stalks back and forth the other side of that barrier like a Sith Tiger.. Good shit. 

Aaaaand Quigon is dead. RIP. 

“Now This is Pod Racing.”.. It’s not though is it? 

Nice to have something blow up and actually have debris instead of just all being gone completely. 

Anddd there goes Maul to go get robot spider legs and then be found by his bro Savage. 

Why do you wanna bring balance to the force anyway if it’s currently so one sided favouring the light side? Surely bringing balance is a bad thing at that point. 

Yoda’s already soooo old. 

Alright so they know there’s a Sith out there and the guy is still just like right next to them and they don’t know. Tut. 

That Jedi behind Mace Windu at the end looks intimidating as shit. 

Padme, he’s a kid, calm yourself down woman. You predator. 

Alright.. Film done. 10/10 Best movie ever. Naa tbh I enjoy the prequels more than most, obviously if you’ve stuck with me this long you know that but it clearly has its flaws.. still.. I enjoyed it! Feel free to ask me my opinions on specific things if you want.  Also shamelessly gonna plug my two star wars muses Cal and Savage here, rp with me you cowards. Also I’m down to star wars verse any of my other characters, literally any of them, i have ideas for all. 

[nimbus-cloud]

Taka-Talk Tokyo Summer 2018

So I got to attend two sessions out of the three Takato had in Tokyo, (mid-afternoon and evening), and ohhh my goddddddd.

Actor events  are a trap.  They just make you love them ten times more and then all you want to do is throw all your money at them.  I’m writing a recap of what I saw across the two sessions, so peek under the Read More if you’re curious!

Afternoon 

The afternoon session had Kage-chan and Kousei as guests, and they were really cute chatting about soccer and Takato trying to constantly upstage the other two by being really cute and having us scream that he was really cute.  Occasionally this would make Kage-chan or Kousei get “irritated” but every time they had anything near a “fight” Takato they’d do this little hand gesture to be like, “But I don’t hate you~” And they were really in sync with it (Hiroki in the evening had NO idea how to do it lol).  

At one point, he had these two purikura photos to give out as prizes, with Kage-chan and Kousei drawing seat numbers out of an envelope to choose the winners and hand them out. A girl in the row behind us won one of them and omg she was so excited she was gonna die.  So Kousei came really close to us to give her the photo and he was like, "It's not a photo of me but congratulations!" lol  And she was just super super excited and happy it was adorable.  

Then Takato prepared these short videos to show us but there wasn’t time for all of them so Kage-chan had to choose randomly which video we could watch from these 3 cards. So we got to see the selfie video that Takato took going through a haunted house by himself!  It was so cute watching him get spooked~  But then when the staff recorded him separately after he came out, he was all nah, i wasn't scared, i was totally manly and cool Even though he did still say that it was probably still a good idea to not do a haunted house by yourself lol

He and Kazuma wrote a song together, and he's posted some clips on Twitter, the song is titled "Try." They're both very good at singing and their duet was fun~ Kazuma did most of the composing for the song, and he wanted to come up with something that would convey Takato’s personality and what he thinks about him and stuff.  Since they did the song at every session, Kazuma was at every session and technically a guest every time, but also he was helping out with random stuff (like bringing out the cards for Kage-chan so he could pick a video).  He was very shy and nervous about singing, and I don’t know why because he’s great!!! 

At the end of the sessions, Takato does high-fives to send us off and when it was my turn, I told him it was my first time and that I had fun and he went, “Really?” with a little smile.  

Evening

Here is where I almost died.

We were in the second row this time, and at the start he wanted to know if anyone had come from really far away to see him.  My friend @lost-shounen nudged me so I raised my hand and told him I came from Seattle and his eyes went big and went, “Seattle!? Wow...” And then he said, “Me too!” and I was like, “That’s not true!”  

Of course he brought up our baseball team the Mariners and their famous Japanese player Ichirou, and I said yes, and then he pointed out of course that he played an Ichirou in Engeki Haikyuu (the elementary schooler).  And then when he was introducing his secret guest for the evening session (it was Ino Hiroki) he had the audience try guessing who it could be.  And then he looked at me and asked me how to say 誰だと思う? in English.  So I replied, "Who do you think it is?" and he was like, “wait wait, too fast.”

So I slowed it down, he repeated, "Who do you think..." I said "it is?" But then when he put it all together by himself it was just a gibberish of sounds lol BUT ARGH SO CUTE AND ALSO I WAS GONNA DIE MY HEART WAS BEATING SO FAST AND FOR MINUTES AFTERWARD UGHHHHHH

And then Kazuma dragged Hiroki in and wow those screams tho lol Even Takato was surprised at the volume because it really was impressive.  

Oh yeah, for all his guests Takato asked them to kiss this little poster of himself. Kousei got hammy with that, but HIROKI LORD He just pressed it to his face for several seconds and then threatened to throw it in the audience lololol.  And then later the subject of Gotou Takeru's (Yaku) wedding came up, which Hiroki went to, and he was like, “Ahhh weddings are nice~” So Takato was like, “Should we get married?”  THEN THEY LOCKED ARMS AND STOOD SIDE BY SIDE and Takato said all the lines the officiant would say.  Hiroki very seriously and softly said, “I do.”  And then when it was time for the kiss, Takato held up the little poster again but Hiroki just shoved it out of the way to try and kiss Takato's actual face instead.  Allllmost got him that time (he gets him later lol).  

Hiroki's guest corner was Who can draw better? Kazuma brought out the markers and sketchpads, and they made him stay on the stage to emcee. The first topic was Lilo & Stitch.  Honestly, they both suck at drawing lol but we voted for Takato's since his Lilo was cuter and because he had the cuter Stitch voice impersonation.  

Hiroki then tried to do a Lilo voice and it sounded nothing like Lilo lol He told us to close our eyes before he did it, and I wasn't closing mine so he pointed at me and yelled, “You're not closing your eyes!” Being in the second row and being a head taller than those around me meant I couldn't get away with anything I suppose lol

The second art theme was: TOKUGAWA IEYASU Kazuma kept wandering between them and blowing in their ears (mostly Hiroki) to distract them and mess them up lol.  Hiroki won the round because he mimicked an iconic painting of him and actually drew the Tokugawa crest and stuff. Takato's was good too but "looked too much like Nobunaga" 

Since they were tied, they had to do rock, paper, scissors to decide who’d have to do the “punishment” but they forced Kazuma to do it with them and then HE WON so he had to say an embarrassing romantic line.  A staff member brought out a sheet of paper that had several different ones listed on it so Hiroki and Takato chose one for Kazuma (while giggling the entire time), and they dimmed the stage, gave him a single spotlight, and he had to face us and dramatically say something along the lines of, “I just can’t keep it in anymore.  I need you.” type scene.  He was soooo embarrassed to do it, especially since he wasn’t supposed to be involved in this segment to begin with but he did it for us~

Then they picked one for Takato because in the end, they ALL played the “punishment” round and they all gave us a dramatic, romantic line.  Takato’s was one where he ran from off-stage to the center, tripped and fell over his chair, and had the dramatic, “Wait!  Stay by my side!” kind of scene.  And made it really dramatic by kicking the chair again toward the end because, “You’re driving me crazy!” Kazuma picked one for Hiroki, and then Hiroki sat on a chair in the spotlight and his line was, “Put your hand over my heart.  It’s beating like this because of you.  I love you.”  AGAIN THE SCREAMS WERE SO LOUD.

That ended the guest corner with Hiroki, and before leaving the stage, Hiroki offered his hand for Takato to shake and then he PULLED HIM IN AND KISSED HIM.  Takato tried to turn his face away but like, Hiroki basically smooched him riiiight on the edge of his lips.  SHOULD’VE SEEN IT COMING TAKATO, YOU KNOW HOW SMOOCHY HIROKI CAN BE!!!

I’m kind of starting to forget the order of things, but sometime during all this, Takato realized he’d lost track of the time and that he was supposed to broadcast some of the event on his Line Live Channel, so the staff started setting that up, and he and Kazuma came out again to sing Try.  And then there was a special video where he announced his first photobook!!!  It’ll be released in August around his birthday!!!  

Another guest during this segment was a fellow C.I.A. member, Yuushin, who played the guitar for the Try song, and then he and Takato did a duet doing an acoustic cover of a Shiina Ringo song.  Again, I really like hearing Takato sing~ I hope he gets to do more musicals (and hopefully I’ll get to see them).  Then a final segment where he goes through the audience and we’re allowed to take photos of him (that’s when I took the photos above) as he walks by.  

And another high-five send-off~  I told him I’d love to come visit from Seattle again and he gave me an adorable smile with his high-five and said, “Please do!” 

I got several packs of random bromide, a Taka-Tomo shirt, and a pamphlet, and fell basically ten times more in love with him.  TT ^ TT

[eene-fangirl]

Stand By Ed Chapter 3 [An Ed, Edd n Eddy Fanfiction]

NOTE: Chapter 3 of @camriko-arts and I collaboration! Enjoy!

The Eds walked through a grassy field following the train tracks for some ways. Edd glanced at each of his friends. Ed was off in his own world dazzled by a butterfly flying around him. When he turned to Eddy Edd’s smile instantly faded. Eddy was baring his teeth so hard that it looked like they may break. And that was possible.

Edd remembered Eddy recounting his trip to the dentist a month after finding his brother. Other then excessive cavities from jawbreakers no doubt, Eddy’s teeth were practically cracked from grinding them together. Most likely due to his anxiety. He had a hard time talking about his feelings. They’d been bottled up for so long under that mask.

Ahead of them was a bridge. Before it was a sign that read, ‘Entering Lemon Brooke.’ Once over the bridge the tracks went on. They were surrounded by a forest of trees and not much else. Each gulped at the lingering memories. Mostly Edd. His head almost ached having to remember the awful experience.

“How long is it if we follow the tracks all the way?” Eddy asked Edd.

“The body is somewhere at the end of Lemon Brooke, correct?” Edd asked.

“That’s what I heard,” Eddy answered. He was doubtful now. After the incident with the gun Eddy was weary about anything else he had eavesdropped on Bro. He knew.

“I surmise that it will take 20 miles, maybe more, walking,” Edd reckoned.

“We’re already gonna spend the night out here. Are you sure we’ll get there by tomorrow?” Eddy asked, skeptical.

“It is simple, Eddy,” Ed spoke up, holding up his finger. “We have to follow the tracks, cut a ways through the forest, we’ll come to a junkyard, and then there’s a town not too far.”

Edd and Eddy stared at their friend, surprised. “You’ve been through here before, Ed?”

“Dad and I walked through here a lot. We brought Sarah once,” Ed stared into the ground sadly. “I miss that.”

Attempting a forced smile, Ed walked on.

The divorce was going to happen any day. And from how it sounded both parents weren’t right for custody. There was talk about another family member taking them in, but they lived in another state. Ed and Sarah were a part of the decision process both agreeing that they’d like to stay in Peach Creek. Authorities were looking around for someone to take them in whether it was a neighbor or foster care. As long as Ed stayed with Sarah he was happy.

The boys walked on following the tracks. To lighten the mood Ed started whistling a familiar toon. Edd and Eddy joined in. Or tried too. Eddy never whistled before in his life. Instead he sang along, beatboxing a rhythm and dancing.

“Ooh, ooh!” Ed excitedly spoke up. “I brought a comb!”

“You hardly have any hair, lumpy!” Eddy joked.

“Says you!” Ed retaliated, sticking out his tongue. “I brought it for us to share. You said we could get on TV when we found the body!”

Eddy snickered, flashing a grin. “Yeah, I think I’m the only one who needs a comb,” he said smoothing a hand through his recently blue dyed hair. He even let it grow out some. Edd liked it, arguably. Eddy was always looking for attention. This new style made him look... badass. Edd blushed. He could never let that escape his mouth to anyone!

Pretty soon the friends took a rest and sat on the tracks once they were in a big open area with barely any trees. There were power lines not too far from them. That meant civilization was close.

Edd was against sitting on the tracks, but as long as they were cautious. He heard the horn in the distance every so often. Edd loved that noise. Especially in the years where he could never leave his room. He looked forward to it each day. Because of that he knew the train schedule by heart.

“You said there’s a junkyard close by, Ed?” Eddy asked.

“Yeah, but we have to watch out for Chopper.”

Edd winced. “Chopper?”

“You don’t know about Chopper?” Eddy asked. Surprised mixed with fright. Edd suspiciously turned to his friend. He enjoyed messing around with him.

“Chopper is the owner’s dog of ‘Antonucci’s Junkyard,” Ed explained. “He only attacks trespassers. When Dad used to volunteer there he told me how loud Chopper was. And nippy.”

Edd shivered. He always disliked dogs. He didn’t have an exact reason. He deplored his parents actions even more for hiding him away from the world. It destroyed the social skills he already developed beyond his own age. They took away the opportunity to live. Now he was finally living out adventures with friends.

“If Chopper’s there we can give ‘im somethin’ to gnaw on. That’ll distract him from chewin’ off Double Dee’s leg,” Eddy joked, poking at his friend.

“Very funny, Eddy,” Edd replied, unamused.

“Um, guys,” Ed nervously spoke. He was looked through his sack.

“What is it, Ed?” Edd asked, concerned.

“Did any of us bring food?”

Eddy’s eyes bulged. “Shit!”

“Eddy, language!”

“Sorry! We brought no food? What’re we supposed to do?! I ain’t starvin’ myself again!”

Ed’s stomach growled. “Belly’s empty.”

“Why didn’t you bring something?” Edd confronted Eddy, his hands on his hips.

“Hey, don’t look at me! I thought you were Mr. Ready-For-Anything! How come you didn’t bring anything we could munch on?”

Edd shut his eyes for a brief moment not wanting to relieve the awkward and painful meeting he had with his parents. Every day he wished to have some sort of interaction with his parents. They’d talk and then spend the day together. Now he regret that.

“Are there any stores we could go to?” Eddy wondered.

“There’s the ‘Lemon Brooke Mini Mart’,” Edd suggested, though with little excitement in his voice. Eddy briefly looked confused but then remembered the time his friend lived here for. He could only imagine how uncomfortable he was to be back yet again.

“Right, soooo, how much money do we all got?” Eddy asked, a hint of discomfort and embarrassment in his voice.

Edd had the most. Five dollars exactly. Two dollars and seventy five cents from Ed, and only twenty five cents from Eddy.

“Hey, at least we got eight dollars!” Eddy pointed out when Edd scowled at him. “You can get water and whatever else with the rest. How expensive could a few snacks be?”

“Uh, guys, I think there’s an earthquake coming,” Ed alarmed his friends.

Edd also felt the earth shaking, but it was not due to an earthquake. The train was coming.

“We’d better make our way, gentlemen.”

Ed and Edd collected their belongings and moved off the tracks down a little hill. All except  Eddy. He threw his bag to the side. He stood, facing the oncoming train, his feet spread shoulder distance apart.

“Eddy, what are you doing? Get off the tracks this minute!” Edd warned.

“I’m gonna dodge it,” Eddy said, smiling vivaciously. “Just like how they do in the movies.”

“Eddy, no, get away from there!” Edd called out, hesitating to run to Eddy. The train was nearing closer and closer.

“You’ll get yourself killed!” Ed chimed in.

The train blew its whistle warning Eddy to move. Eddy ignored his friends warnings. Now was the time to prove he and Bro were alike. When he watched his brother play chicken with a friend he jumped out of the way at the last second. He wasn’t even scared.

“Eddy, get away from there!” Edd hollered, his voice growing hoarse.

Eddy shot his fist into the air and screamed as if he were going into battle.

Ed ran up and took hold of Eddy, briefly fighting with him. “What are you doin’?! Stop that! I wanna dodge it!”

At the last second Ed pulled Eddy away as the train shot passed them like a bull. They fell on the ground.

“You ruined my chance!” Eddy screamed. He sat up from the dirt brushing himself off.

“You could have been dead, Eddy! I don’t want you dead!” Ed’s voice broke.

Edd walked up to his friend, standing over him. “What in the world were you thinking?”

Eddy stood his ground, staring up his friend. “Just tryin’ to live a bit, sockhead! Bro said!”

They were silent, listening to the train disappear. “Eddy...”

“I know!” Eddy yelled so fiercely that it made Ed and Edd jump. He bent down and threw his big over his shoulder and marched on. “You don’t have to tell me a billion times!”

And they took off, an uncomfortable silence floating throughout the air.

[bluejaytaco]

DND with Jay (A season finale of sorts)

(Like I said, a lot of shit happened. Here’s some more!)

DM: After the sandstorm dissipates, you are all left in the presence of Bahamut’s head as Shmoogy leaves. Anyone want to say anything? Possibly to Theodora, who just watched another god behead her god?

Theodora: (Still kneeling in the sand near her god’s head)........

Koejin: (Walks up and just stands next to her)

Alabaster’s bag starts to yell out a muffled “what the fuck was that?!” And Alabaster pulls out Haida’s severed head. (Context: Haida is another Acentria’s Thia (our leader.) She is a necromancer who works under Ticket Master in that world (or at least she claims. Art’s not too sure.) The big thing that sets her apart from Thia is that Haida has no problem killing people while Thia is a pure pacifist. Haida tells us that Thia has to kill Mrs. Red. Once again, Art is skeptical.

(More Context: Art and Thia once had an argument after they killed General Blue. I don’t think Thia has really forgiven him for it, but she’s slowly working on trusting him again.))

Alabaster: Oh! Hello there!

Haida: Ahhh! God you’re haunting! What was that noise?!

Alabaster: (turns and faces her to Bahamut)

Haida:....Oh... shit.... wait.... this is ...good... yeah, this is good!

Art:...Is it?

Haida: Yeah, I mean. We were fighting him and now he’d dead, right? Good work, team!

(Alabaster returns Haida to his bag.)

Wreybar: I wanna attempt to play field hockey with Bahamut’s head! (Runs up and smacks the massive dragon head with her axe only to fall down)

Art: (sighs and walks over to Wreybar, leans over to look down at her) You good there, buddy?

Wreybar: (thumbs up)

Hennessy:(Walks up and hands Theodora her sword) I believe this belongs to you?

Theodora: ........... (takes it super reluctantly)

Now that the sandstorm has dissipated, we can see across the desert to another city where Mrs. Red is landing. Those who rolled high on investigation can see that Rieta is on her back. (Art was one of the high rollers.)

But, before we can react, fifty soldiers come marching out of the city and surround us, swords and shields at the ready. The head guard walks up to us with a scroll.

Head Guard: Under direct order from Mrs. Red, the City of Clearly Snowball hereby puts all of you under arrest (points to Hennessy) you, for being worshipped as a false god up in the Samhain islands. (points to Alabaster) you, for worshipping a false god and spreading his word. (Points to Art) you, for having lain with evil itself. (points to Theodora) you, for abandoning your post and the worship of a false god. (points to Koejin) you, for a long list of crimes, including the murder of General Blue. (points to Wreybar) and you, for being just... a tiny abomination.

Wreybar: try me, bitch. (for context, Wreybar is a gnome with a high pitch helium baby voice)

Head Guard: It’s up to you whether you want to go peacefully or not. We could make this get ugly.

Art:... you know who we are. ‘Peaceful’ isn’t exactly our style.

Head Guard: That’s why there’s fifty of us. (They brace themselves)

(The party tenses up. We were kinda preparing for a fight.)

Theodora: Stop! .... We’ll go. (turns back to us) We’ll go...

(All of us kinda had different ideas as to what we were going to do. Some wanted to fight. Others wanted to just go quietly.)

DM: We’ll go one by one and you all can choose how to react to your guard.

Alabaster’s guard: (looks at him and sighs) Look, this will all be easier if you come quietly and.... maybe consider changing your worship practice.

Alabaster: Yes... I’ll keep that in mind.

Hennesy’s guard: (just goes to work on handcuffing Hennessy)

Hennessy:... please don’t make them too tight now.... (high roll on persuasion)

Hennessy’s guard:.... (keeps cuffs pretty loose)

Art’s Guard: (walks up like he’s all tough) hands behind your head.

(Me: Can I roll to see if this is all an act?

DM: Sure. (High roll) Alright, so you see it isn’t; he means business. But Art’s seen this before. The man’s overcompensating for something.

Hennessy’s player: He got a tiny dick!)

((If I was even remotely close to Art’s charisma, I probably would’ve been able to find out something to do with that...))

Art: Look, you don’t have to do this. If you let us go, we can pretend this never happened; we leave this city and we never come back. (Low persuasion roll)

Art’s Guard: For someone who laid with evil, you’d think your tongue would be a little more silver.

Art:.... ( puts his hands behind his head and casts Mislead. Invisible Art walks away)

Head Guard: (sighs) stay where you are, tiefling. (breaks through Art’s spell. Hennessy now sees that the armor grants the soldiers Truesight.)

Art: (suddenly appearing mid escape) ....shit.... (seeing Hennessy and Alabaster pretty much already cuffed makes him yield)

DM: Art, I’m gonna need you to roll a wisdom saving throw.... if you don’t pass it, shit’s gonna go down.

Me: (rolls a 19).... ugh.... I really wanted to see shit go down....

DM: Art, you know Ticket Master pretty well now. So, you close your fist before he can say anything as the guard cuffs you.

Koejin’s player: Okay, so I’ve been thinking up quips and stuff while this is happening and so I call out (I forget what she said...) and punch my guard in the gut, then follow that up with “Quit slut-shaming the bard!”

(Funny OOC moment: Hennessy’s player misheard Koejin’s and thought she said “punch in the butt.” This turned into ten minutes of everyone inventing a rom com where it’s basically just an hour of... certain butt stuff that ends in “I’m sorry, what was your name?”... we’re all pretty fucked up people. I love this group.)

DM: do you wanna see your guard before you do this?

Koejin: ...fuck it, yeah. I’m still gonna do it.

DM: You’re gonna feel a little silly. Because when you turn to punch, you don’t have a man standing in front of you. You have a kid. And you just decked him right in the face. He falls flat on his ass and his lip starts quivering.

Koejin:.... uhhh, hey.... Why do I get the child?

Art’s Guard: (as he’s handcuffing Art) I’m not gonna be the one to deal with you.

Art: (shrugs) you are the most dangerous out of all of us.

Koejin: (touched) Thank you, Art! 

Art: That being said... why the fuck did you bring a child here?!

(We start shaming the soldiers for bringing a little kid to capture some highly dangerous criminals. Koejin tries to convince the kid to help us out and we can help him find his parents. Then, the head guard walks up and guides the kid back over to Koejin. Koejin goes to punch the guard, hits his armor, and shatters the bones in her hand.)

Koejin: FUUUUUUUCK!!!!!

Head Guard: not so smart for a ranger to lose her firing hand. (guides the kid back to her) put the cuffs on.

Child Guard: (still sniveling.. up until he locks the cuffs. Then the water works stop.) Dumb bitch....

Koejin: (mouth agape) (goes to kick the kid)

(Me: Can we all try and trip the little shit as he walks passed?

DM: no.)

Koejin: (As she’s being arrested, turns to shout at Theodora) You don’t get to leave and then expect us to go quietly!

Theodora’s Guard: (possibly the calmest and most quiet)

Theodora: (Recognizes him but can’t quite put her finger on as to why) ....how do we know each other?

Theodora’s Guard: I don’t believe we’ve met. Please just come quietly.

Theodora: (Nods)

Wreybar’s guard: Now, are you gonna put up a fight?

Wreybar: Come at me, motherfucker! What you gonna do, put a cuff over my stump?! Do it! See what happens!

Wreybar’s guard: (Stabs a large spike into her stump where, at the top, is the sigil of Mrs. Red on a piece about the size of a fist. He then cauterizes the wound and glares at her) there. Now I have a place for the cuffs.

The rest of the party: ....(in shock)

Art, cuz he can’t ever keep his mouth shut:.... holy fuck...

DM: You’re all loaded into the caravan one by one, and your guards are following closely behind. Theodora, Hennessy, as it drives away, you see Green appear in front of the head of Bahamut. He puts his hands on his head in shock.

Hennessy: (Distracts his guard just enough to then shoot out magic missile like a flare)

Green: (sees it but doesn’t come after the caravan)

DM: Theodora, you notice your guard is staring Art down. Like, intensely staring at him.

Me: Do I notice? 

DM: Roll perception (high roll) yes, but when you look to meet his eye, he looks away.

Me: I’m gonna roll to see if I know him. (another high roll; this was a pretty good night for Art)

DM: So, you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you’ve slept with him. (Koejin’s player: of course he did!) There is no question in your mind. But you don’t ever remember sleeping with an elf. (Me: Weird thing for Art to not have done...)

Art: (now staring at Theodora’s guard, trying really really hard to remember when and how.)

Kid guard: (still being all smug)

Theodora:.... I’m sorry they got to you so young...

Kid guard: You really don’t get it, do you? (points to the head guard) That’s my dad.

Koejin: Oh, so you’re the worst kind of little shit. A ‘ do you know who my father is’ little shit.

Kid guard: Shut up. You’re going back to jail. I know your type, I can smell the alcohol on you from here.

Art: (while still staring) being an alcoholic isn’t a crime.

The kid ignored Art and continued to talk about them being criminals and how Koejin was going to spent the rest of her life behind bars. You know, because daddy said it was gonna be like that. The fighting does eventually dwindle.

Koejin: Hey, can someone heal my hand please? It really hurts...

Art: (pulling his attention away from the guard to glare at Koejin) 

Wreybar: (also glaring at Koejin) Ohhhh, does your hand hurt?! Wouldn’t know what that’s like!

Art: It must be soooooo painful!! I feel soooo bad for you!

Koejin: Okay look, both of you can go an- (can barely be heard over Wreybar and Art talking about how much they care about Koejin’s hand pain.)

((Context: Art’s hand was sliced off by Koejin quite a few sessions ago; it was reattached by Ticket Master and is now the main source of speaking for the god. Also, Wreybar has a stump where her hand used to be because Koejin convinced her to remove the bracelet which led to a lost hand.))

Head Guard: Listen... stop your fucking bickering or this is going to be a painful time for all of you. 

We pull up to the jail and are ushered out of the caravan. Art goes to take this opportunity to try and send a message to Theodora’s guard to, once more, try and figure out how he knows him. All he gets back is ear piecing feedback.

Art, a dumbass who assumes this has something to do with magic: (leans closer to Hennessy) might wanna try not to use magic...

Hennessy: So we’ll have to get through this with our wits and wiles. Luckily (shows Art his loosened cuffs) we have those in spades.

We all get thrown into our cells, all separate cells but still within reach and the ability to talk to one another. There’s an empty, broken down cell next to Art and a cell with an elf boy next to Alabaster. Once the guards are gone, we all work to slip out of our cuffs. Well, all but Theodora.

As we’re all arguing (as we often do; it’s amazing we can get anything done) the boy in the cell wakes up and tells us all to shut the fuck up. His name is Vance; he’s got one eye sewn shut and was thrown in jail for literally telling Clearly (The city-dictator and Alabaster’s sister) that he’ll kill her. Coolest homeless kid.

Koejin finds this suspicious and shames Alabaster for revealing his name to the child.

Vance: You know, you look a lot like Clearly Snowball...

Alabaster:....er...well, you see....

Art, knowing Alabaster can’t lie: He gets that a lot. Like, all the time.

Alabaster: Yes! Quite!

Vance: Look, I don’t give a shit. Just saying it’s not common to see such an elf monstrosity and yet.... here we have two of them.

((Meanwhile))

Koejin: (sticks her hand through the bar to Theodora’s cell) Hey, could you help me out with this?

Theodora:....not anymore.

Hennessy: (easily misty steps right out of his cell) I was actually curious, Theodora. Now that Bahamut is... well... does that make you an Oathbreaker?

Theodora: I don’t know.... God has never died in front of me before.

Alabaster: Well.... in my studies, I learned that when a god is slain by another, that god then gains their realm as well...

(A moment of tense silence as everything settles into what that might mean.)

Art: (Sees Hennessy Misty step and uses dimension door to do the same)... huh... (picks the lock to his cell so he can go in and out if someone comes in. He then turns and looks over at the broken down cell.)

Vance: You know, guys, they’re gonna be back to give us food in a bit. And the guard who feeds us isn’t one you wanna mess with.

Hennessy: (goes to use magic to free Koejin.)

Koejin: Whoa whoa, hey! Why are you doing that when Art can pick locks?!

Hennessy: Huh? Oh! Art, would you mind freeing our compatriots?

Art: (actually remembers he’s kinda the Rouge stand-in) Right, yeah. (Works to pick every lock the same way he did for his own cell; so that, if someone comes in, we can all get back in the cell, no problem. He’s able to do it to every cell but Wreybar’s.)

Alabaster: (heals Koejin’s hand once both of them are free)

Art:(stops at Vance’s cell) Hm...

Vance: So, tiefling? Gunna let me out too?

Art: (pauses at Vance’s cell)...We all good to let the kid free? Koejin?

Koejin: Ugh, yeah I guess.

Theodora: Art.... please... free him.

Art: Yeah, okay.... (unlocks Vance’s cell)

Vance: Great. Now, like I said, they’re gonna be coming into feed us soon, so... 

We all end up flooding back into our cells for a few minutes when a familiar face enters the room. 

((Really long bit of context here: First general we took down was General Green who was then replaced with Thia’s guy; an Aarakocroa named Zerg. Zerg had a wife that we forgot to search for in the library (Green’s battleground, basically) which lead to her being horribly injured. Red found her and brought her to Vincent (Hennessy’s fiancé and possibly the only sane tiefling in this entire world) where he was able to make her some new body parts. Pretty much all technological advancements in this world are the work of Vincent in some way. Anyway, we went back to the first city and found her fighting with her husband. There, she swore to kill us all and was pretty much put in place to be one of the new Generals.

She has no name as far as I remember. Also, she’s batshit. So, for now, imma call her General Batshit.))

General Batshit: (walks in and looks at all of us with a growl) ugh... (Tosses Vance’s food into his cell before addressing all of us) Mrs. Red wants all of you alive so she can deal with you herself. But... I guess it can’t be helped if you all starve to death. (throws down the food in the middle of the room and laughs as she walks out.)

Art:...This is poor planning on her part... Red’s gonna see that we were never fed and who’s that gonna link back to?

Alabaster: Not to mention how unsanitary it is to simply throw the food in the middle of the room.

(Everyone walks back out of their cells.)

Art, to Vance: How much time does that give us?

Vance: They usually check like every half hour. But that could be changed considering there’s more people.

Koejin: Right, so we figure out a way quickly. Does a certain talking hand have anything to say?

Art:....He hasn’t said anything in a while. (looks at his hand. The Ticket Master hand still has the cuff on it.)

Koejin: (helps remove the cuff and looks down at the hand again, getting real close.) Hey, buddy. You there?

Art:.... (slaps her with that hand) Sorry, it has a mind of it’s own.

((DM: Roll deception

Me: Dude, I was kidding.

DM: okay, you roll deception and Koejin rolls insight. See if she falls for it.))

Koejin: (rolled low and gasps happily) he’s back!!

Art: (rolled high on deception and can’t believe Koejin fell for it)....(smacks her with his other hand)

Koejin: (finally gets it) See if I ever save your life again.

They all start looking around. Art goes and studies the broken down cell to figure out why it’s in the condition it’s in. When he does, a smilie face glows in the back of the cell.

Art:... guys! I found something! (A little excited because he knows who it is) Wreybaaaarrrr! I wanna get in here!

Hennessy: (Stepping over to see and recognizes the mark) Why, Art, I do believe that is Ticket Master-

Art: I dO BeliEve tHaT iT’s- yeah, no shit it’s Ticket Master!

Hennessy: (Deadpan stare) It’s his sigil. From his jacket.

There is no getting into the cell, the door is completely rusted shut. Art tries to get Wreybar to pry it open, but they don’t have the time.

There’s a sudden rumble outside the jail. Like a giant explosion that shakes everything. Because of the lack of windows, we can’t see what happened. As we’re all trying to figure it out, Hennessy sees the door starting to open. He then moves to hide behind the door, possibly to ambush the newcomer.

It’s Theodora’s guard.

Theodora’s Guard: Listen, we don’t have much time. I have to get you out of here.

Koejin: Was that explosion you?

Theodora: Why are you helping us?

Theodora’s guard: No, it wasn’t. I’m just using it’s timing. I don’t know why I’m helping you. I just! I just feel like... I need to.

Art: There’s gotta be a reason. You know, maybe some kind of...purely platonic feeling... Something other than just “I need to help these people.” 

Theodora’s Guard: (blushes the moment Art mentions “platonic feelings”) I don’t know... I just feel like you’re.... friends. (huge hint that I didn’t even realize was a fucking hint until typing this out!!)

Vance: Yeah, that’s cool and all. But.... am I free to go?

Theodora’s Guard: I don’t care what you do.

Theodora: What do we call you then, friend?

Theodora’s Guard: My name is Samhaiel.

Art: Samhaiel.... Right.

Koejin: We trust him, right?

Alabaster: Yes! Samhaiel is friend-shaped!

That’s all it took for everyone to approve of Samhaiel. We all end up running from the jail and see a giant black force working to destroy the building. And that’s when we run into another familiar face.

It’s Green. (To recap: Green is a lich who was our first general. He’s on our side now.)

Green, so done with our shit:....Looks like you guys got yourself in quite the shit show.

He leads us to an abandoned house where we can talk about all the events that took place. Meanwhile, we’re all trying to figure out what’s going on with Samhaiel, where it’s pretty obvious Art’s frustrated with the idea of knowing him but not knowing him.

There’s a moment where Samhaiel is ushered away to stand guard while we talk a little bit. (There’s a moment where it shows that the guard is pretty intimidated by Green.)

Art: Can’t we just have Green attach to him?!

Green: I could use a little energy since the travel here....

Theodora: No. No more brain sucking. 

Art: Oh, come on!

Koejin: Wait... how do you know him, Art?

Art: Errr.... well...

Green: Would someone mind filling me in on what the fuck is going on?!

Art pulls Green to the side, further away from Samhaiel (because we don’t know how much we can really trust him) and tells him everything they’ve done and what they know about the god war. They rejoin the group shortly after the convo.

Green: So.... I’m going to be needed. Understand that, by doing this, the gems will be destroyed. Meatball will always be Meatball. All hope for returning Eltbalm to his body will be lost.

Koejin: I think that’s something we’re willing to deal with....

Art:....what’ll happen to Rieta?

Green: If you can get the gem from her spine safely, nothing. But... That’s the problem. Getting her gem. For now... I would very much like to see what he knows (gestures to Samhaiel)

Theodora: .....

Art: It’s not permanent! Shit, I was only an idiot for a little bit.

Koejin: You’re still an idiot.

Art:... Hmph... Be that as it may... I volunteer for Samhaiel to get his knowledge seeped.

Green: I’ll only accept a unanimous decision. (turns to everyone else) 

Everyone: (reluctantly agrees to allow a knowledge seep from out new friend.)

Samhaiel is called back over to the group. The line pops out from Green and immediately sticks into Samhaiel’s forehead. There’s a moment of nothing, then Green collapses on the ground.

Samhaiel stands up straight and smiles wide: Hello, friends! (It’s Ticket Master)

((Koejin’s player: I fucking knew it!!!

Me: I had a feeling... I just wasn’t sure...) (Why that other part was a huge hint. Since the beginning, Ticket Master has always referred to our group as “friends.” It’s also always the giveaway when someone is being controlled by his powers.))

Samhaiel: Yes, this must be very confusing for all of you. You see, this is my mortal form.

Art: Does that mean Samhaiel is your name?! (realizes his mistake as soon as the words leave his mouth.) ((AKA: Jay forgot for a moment, Ticket Master doesn’t remember his original name))

Ticket Master: (staring at Art in annoyed silence) ....Moving on.

Art: Yeah, for the best....

Ticket Master: You have to bring this form to me, but first you’ll need to get to that other city across the desert, yes? Well, my friends, you let that boy go. 

Koejin: He was too cool to keep around.

Ticket Master: Yes, well, cool or not... He was your best hope for travel, especially now (he gestures to Green) That eye of his was a portal. And you just let him go. So now, it’s up to you to find a new way. 

(We all kinda pause as we let that sink in. A lot of shit’s been happening to us...)

Ticket Master: But, as of right now, I can’t stay in this body. And we should let him back up again.

Art: Yeah... maybe knowledge sucking was a bad idea...

Ticket Master: Indeed! Goodbye for now! (The thread detaches and Samhaiel is back to being confused) Wh-what just happened?!

Koejin: Do you not remember?

Samhaiel: No. That thing attached to me and then it was just...dark...

(Hennessy’s pager goes off. For a moment, we (as players) make a joke that it’s a dick pic from Vincent. It was a text from Vincent. But it was a picture of General Batshit, holding Vincent up by the head. It comes with text that reads “this is your fault.”

All our pagers go off.)

General Batshit: All of you have loved ones that can be taken away. Keep this in mind when making your next move.

(DM: And that’s where we end for now.

Hennessy’s Player: Way to follow with the ‘kill the gays’ trope, DM!

Me: That’s one hell of a cliffhanger to leave until possibly January!

Koejin’s Player: It’s the mid-season finale!)

(((I still hate it...)))