#it's still true <3 wow miss drink is really pulling her weight huh sorry about all that <3

[mashmouths]

really not seeing a downside to tipsy cooking, it just makes the time pass faster and the food taste better <3 peace and love <3

[makaias-trash-heap]

Soooooo lately ya girl here has been running into a lot of writing issues so I gave something a try...BACK TO BASICS FOR WHAT I ORIGINALLY MADE THIS BLOG FOR!!! First time I’ve written anything for my favorite Tsundere in a while. Enjoy!! Just more of my own self indulgent writing while I have no requests.

“Sooooo, guess who I just heard from.” 

Shin glanced up from his book with his usual blank expression, “Why not just tell me?”

Mira smiled and rolled her eyes slightly, “My parents. They called and asked me to come over for dinner for my sister's birthday this weekend.” She stated, plopping on the couch next to him.

Mirdorima raised an eyebrow giving her an intrigued look, “This is the first time they've wanted you over since we've been together nanodayo.” 

Mira hummed in agreement leaning into his side, naturally causing him to blush like always. 

“Are you going?” 

Mira shook her head, “Probably not.”

“Why not?”

“Shin, my family and I haven't gotten along in years. I've tried going over a few times and it always ends in a fight.”

She ignored the look he gave her in favor of playing with his fingers, a habit she picked up on when he still tapped them.

“Mira, they're still your family nanodayo. We've been together for nearly 3 years and I don't recall you seeing them at all.”

“Not true, I've seen my brother.”

“Mira.”

“Look, I don't want to go because I don't want to fight and that's exactly what will happen. Especially going now.”

He gave Mira a slight confused look, “What does that mean?”

She sighs turning to face him, “We've been together for about 3 years and aren’t engaged, I'm perfectly with how things have been going but my parents are incredibly judgmental and will nag and question why. There's also the fact that I’m 2 years older than you. And even though it’s incredibly stupid, my parents will not agree with the fact that I'm with someone younger than me. And to top all of that off I'm pregnant out of wedlock, big no no to my parents. We also fight about my brother everytime I'm there. I guess they invited him too so this is going to be twice the chaos.” 

Midorima adjusted his glasses looking down at her, “I understand these situations can be uncomfortable, but they're still your family and you haven't seen them in years. For all you know they may have changed from the last time you saw them.” 

Mira halfheartedly glared at him and sighed realizing this wasn't going anywhere, “You aren't letting this go until I agree to go are you?”

“I don't intend to.”

“Fine. But if I have to deal with them you're coming with me.”

He turned his full attention to her, “What! Why am I involved in this?”

“You got involved when you bugged me into going. And besides, as you've said, we've been together for 3 years, and you've yet to meet my family.”

If looks could kill Mira would be dead right now, multiple times over. 

“You'll see why I don't get along with them and I promise you'll never end up going with them again and you won't bug me into it.”

Midorima lets out a sigh leaning back into his seat, “I suppose. When are we supposed to be there?”

“Saturday at 5.” 

(Skip to weekend)

“Remind me again why we're here?” Mira groaned as they pulled up in front of her parents house. She ignored the slightly surprised look that snuck his way to his face. She’d given him warning that her family was pretty well off. 

He recovered quickly enough, “Because they're your family nanodayo.”

Mira rolled her eyes trying to mentally prepare herself for the interaction tonight. They climbed out of the car and started making their way up to the house. Mira spotted her brother coming up the sidewalk and waved.

“So you decided to come too huh.” Kenjuro said, returning the gesture.

“Not really, Shin forced me into it. I'm kinda surprised you came though.” 

He shrugged, “Boyfriend forced me to. He offered to come for moral support but you and I both know that that would have been a really bad idea.”

“How’s Reo-chan doing?” Mira asked as they started walking up the sidewalk to the house.

“Good. I watched him play basketball with his old team from high school. So that was kinda exciting .”

They finally reached the door and stood awkwardly glancing at each other until Midorima gently nudged her forward.

“Ok ok sheesh.”

Mira knocked on the door secretly hoping that her parents would ignore them and not answer….sadly that did not happen. Much to her dismay her sister Aika answered the door. 

“Hey Kenjuro, Mira.” Aika greeted them with a fake sweet smile.

“Hey Aika, happy birthday.”

Mira slipped past her with Kenjuro and toed her my shoes off pulling Midorima in behind her. 

“Hello Mira, Kenjuro. We're glad you could make it.” Her parents appeared at the door to greet them

“Hey mom, hey dad.” Mira forced a smile. 

“Who is your guest Mira?”

“Oh, right, Um, mom dad, this is Midorima Shintarou, my boyfriend. Shin, these are my parents.” 

“It's nice to meet you Hashigawa-San.” Midorima politely greeted her parents. 

“The pleasure is ours. Please right this way. Dinner is almost ready.”

Everyone started filing into the dining room, Mira and Midorima following behind last. 

“I don't understand your concern. Your parents seem rather pleasant.” He mumbled quietly so only Mira could hear it. 

“Oh, just wait for dinner. That's usually when the show starts.”

They all took a seat at the table, Kenjuro sitting as far as possible from their parents. Which left Mira and her sister to sit by them. Midorima sat next to Mira starting to notice the awkward atmosphere.

“So Mira. It's been a while since we've last spoken. What have you been up to?” Her father asked after a few moments of silence.

Mira hesitated a second before preparing to answer, this most likely this wasn’t going to go well.

“Working mostly, I just finished up art school not that long ago so I've been working freelance for a while. Making films for tourist companies, helping design Billboards, things like that.” 

Her parents stayed quiet before turning their attention to Midorima.

“Midorima-San, may I ask what you do for a living?”

“I am going into the medical field. I'm currently working on my internship at the hospital.” Midorima straightened up answering.

Mira’s father nodded, “Then a man as logical as you, you can't support this crazy dream of hers.”

Midorima froze and glanced at Mira before answering, “It's her decision to make and if it's something that she feels strongly about then naturally she has my support.” 

Her father was about to say something when he was cut off, “Now now dear, we're trying to have a nice civilized dinner tonight. Ok, this is a discussion we can have another time.”

Mira quickly turned her attention back to her food to avoid more questions. It worked for a while. Although this point Midorima was very uncomfortable. Kenjuro followed Mira’s lead but he's usually safe from questions. Their parents hate the fact that he's gay so they usually don't even acknowledge that part of his life. 

“Mira.” 

Mira looked up from her plate to see her mom holding the wine bottle out to her.

“Oh no thank you mom. I'm good.”

Aika snorted across the table, “wow, you of all people are turning down alcohol?”

Mira rolled her eyes, “do you really want to go there Aika?”

She shrugged, “I'm just saying for a while here sobriety was not your strong suit,” Mira shot a glare at her across the table, “oops sorry, did your boyfriend not know about that?”

“Do mom and dad know you've been sneaking into the liquor cabinet since you were like 14?” Mira shot right back at her.

Of course he knows, he helped her get her act cleaned up. Still a rather sensitive topic right now.

“Ok that's enough you two.” 

Mira rolled her eyes at her dads warning, ready to leave. On top of the unpleasant conversation, the constant nausea from the morning sickness was rough on her today.

“Mira, you ok?” Kenjuro asked, starting to notice her discomfort.

She just nodded waiting for the nausea to subside, “Yeah, stomach is just a little upset.”

Naturally Aika didn't seem to miss a thing.

“Oh my god you're pregnant aren't you?”

Mira immediately tensed up, hoping to completely avoid this topic, “What are you talking about?”

“You aren’t drinking which is pretty out of the ordinary for you, you’re randomly sick and I’ve noticed the weight gain.” Aika quickly insinuated.

Mira didn't answer, deciding instead just to get up and get ready to leave. Midorima grabbed her hand to stop her, it seems like he has other plans.

“They were going to eventually find out Mira.” He said, looking up at her.

“Is that a confirmation?” Her father looked back and forth between them waiting for an answer.

Mira sighs, “Yeah dad, it is. I'm pregnant.” 

Neither of the parents said anything right away. The tension gathering in the air was enough to show that this news was about to be either very well accepted or very poorly.

“We had the perfect life laid out for you. All you had to do was do as you were told and follow it.” Her father started to lecture, “First you turn down one of the best universities in Japan, and then rather than going to any university at all for a real career, you start to follow this ridiculous idea at some art school, and now you're 23 and pregnant. You couldn't have at least been decent enough to get married before spreading your legs for the first guy to take interest in you?!” 

For the first time in an argument with them, Mira was speechless. Her father certainly had a tendency to be cruel, but that was low even for him. He continued yelling, Kenjuro and Aika eventually getting involved in the argument. Mira started to tune out the yelling. This whole night has done nothing but stress her out, and stress is not good for her right now. She felt a sharp pain rip through her abdomen and lower back which snapped her back to reality and the current argument at hand.

“I don't understand where I went wrong with the two of you. My son is a faggot and my daughter is a who-”

“That's enough,” Mirodrima said sternly, “I understand you don't agree with Mira’s life choices. But you cannot control her. She is an adult and it's still her decision to make. As for her being pregnant. No it's not ideal timing right now. My parents were rather disappointed as well. 

We’re not married, and I’m only 21 years old and in medical school while starting this family, but we’re doing it. And my parents have never once referred to myself or Mira in such a derogatory manner.”

“Shintarou.” Mira grabbed his hand and squeezed to get his attention. 

He crouched by her side, “What's wrong?”

“Can we go? I'm starting to cramp badly and I'm just ready to go home.” She whined starting to stand up.

“Yeah let's go, but I'm going to call your doctor to make sure that things are ok before we go home.” 

He helped her stand up and started walking with her to the front door. He occasionally glared back behind them to make sure their family got the hint to leave them alone. Kenjro followed behind them to the car. Midorima helped her into the passenger seat taking her keys to drive.

“Feel better sis, call me later so I know things are ok.” 

Kenjuro closed the door and then went around to talk to Midorima who was on the phone. Once he hung up he turned his attention to Kenjuro to talk to him before climbing into the car.

“How are you feeling? Are you still in pain?” 

She shook her head, “No, it stopped for now. I just feel really sick now.”

He nodded and started the car. The ride home was fairly silent as he focused on the road and Mira focused on not throwing up. He pulled up to their apartment and he quickly came around to her side in case she needed help getting inside. 

“Your doctor said that as long as you aren't bleeding and you don't continue to be in pain that you should be ok. Sometimes some cramping isn’t uncommon, especially in stressful situations. But if they start again she wants us to come immediately,” He explained while they were settling in the bedroom, “so if you're in pain like that again I don't care what time it is wake me up and we’ll go ok.” 

Mira nodded changing into one of his shirts to sleep.

“Why do you insist on stealing my clothes all the time, you have your own dresser full of them.” He grumbled and changed as well.

“Oh stop whining,” She teased looking back at him, “I only steal your shirts and it's only for bed. Besides you never wear these.” 

He grumbled under his breath again while he settled in bed. Mira crawled in next to him and curled up into his side. He's finally used to cuddling with her...it only took him forever to do so. He turned on the lamp on his side of the bed signaling that he planned on reading for a bit before bed.

“Don't fall asleep with your glasses on again.” Mira said rolling over to turn off the light.

He scoffed, “that was once.”

She chuckled, situating herself into a comfortable position to drift off. Mira was nearly asleep when Midorima poked her in her back to get her attention.

“Hmm? What's up?” She rolled over and looked at him. 

“What your parents said earlier, it's bothering me.”

She sighed and sat up, “Just ignore it. Don't ever let anything they say bother you. Like you saw they're a bunch of judgmental assholes.”

He shook his head, “Nothing like that. They aren't bothering me. It just has me thinking. Are you really ok with how things are going?”

She cocked an eyebrow at his question, “I told you earlier I was. I mean, so long as you aren't planning on taking off on me anytime soon I'm perfectly fine with how we're doing ok.” 

He nodded, setting his book aside, “we should go to sleep.”

Mira leaned over and kissed Midorima before laying back down, “Goodnight Shin.”

Midorima returned the kiss and put his book away before laying down and wrapping his arm around her, “Goodnight Mira.”

[eliz1369]

Guess who’s route I just finished...

Wow Fran... You’ve uh... gotten taller... and that’s a whole lot more skin you’re showing... O.o

Has anyone else ever noticed this? I was only half watching the ending video, but it was kinda hard to miss the red, orange, and well... lack of a lab coat. (not like this wasn’t one of my favorite scenes or anything...) I’ll be curious to see if Lupin’s and Saint’s videos have something like this, because Impey and Van Helsing all had their correct cgs. 

On a side note I now have absolute proof that Evil Emperor Aleister is a jerk. Cardia’s chair falls over and the first thing he says is “Did that hurt?”  No, you sadistic bastard, it felt great. In fact it was so much fun, why don’t you sit me up so I can do it again!  

Sorry, back on topic.

I liked Fran’s route, I really did, but idk at this point it falls behind both Impey and Van for me. The romance build up was definitely there, but the emotion on my end wasn’t. Having that cg with Impey show up in the end video made me remember the other cgs that went with the “With You, My Love” BGM. That moment with Impey had me in tears and Van’s had the emotional hit and then relief of Cardia thinking he was dead. In terms of my emotional investment, he’s coming in 3rd at the moment. 

I find his route’s plot to be an interesting case. On my scale of routes for this game, he’s sitting cleanly between Impey and Van, with Van being the best so far. I’m going to have to replay Impey’s at some point, but my overall impression for him was that the cg moments overrode my ambivalence toward some of his character traits and the god-awful antagonist. Van’s went the opposite direction, where the plot was so engrossing, I could overlook the romance and then the ending was so unbelievably emotional. 

Fran’s plot is interesting to me, because while the idea is excellent, some of the execution bothered me and his CG moments weren’t enough to over come it. 

I’m going to start with this dynamic as one of my problems with the route. Every time these two were together after this cg, Victoria turned into the classic “Monologuing Bond Villian”. I could forgive Nemo since he was insane, and Darth Aleister’s end-goal was Van and their relationship was much closer (and he was insane). It seemed odd that so conniving a queen would risk them messing with her plans by revealing so much. I would have liked to see one of these become a “listening at the door” scene or something, rather than a monologue. Did not one of the guards present for these things ever think “Whoa, wait! You’re going to kill us all with poison gas?!? Count me out! I didn’t sign up for this!”

Then there’s also the coincidences... Looking back on Van’s route, Sisi becoming a bloodhound and following Van’s scent drifting off a car falls into this category, but Victor had a couple places that left me scratching my head. 

Several of these belong to Victoria. Leonhardt showing up in the garden was completely believable and slightly humorous. “You’ve been here every night???” but I’m less inclined to forgive the cold and calculating queen.

First was “Muahahaha! I planned for you to escape my dungeon and show up here after I caught you!” Why would you keep everyone waiting in the throne room when you’d clearly thought you had foiled their plan? Then there was the “Muahahaha! I planned for you to escape my palace and lead me here!” You know these are sounding more and more like contingency plans... -.- and I would have respected her a lot more if she’s admitted her main plan didn’t consist of her spilling everything while expecting they would escape. 

This was an awesome moment for Fran. It had the tension, his logical deduction, and that hidden courageous recklessness. What bothered me was him showing up there in the first place. Cardia gets a note telling her to go there, but Fran was what? Taking an evening stroll? He wasn’t in communication with the group, so for him to randomly stumble across her at this point seemed a little fortuitous. 

This was the first moment to really start pulling at my heartstrings and an excellent revealer of the strength of his character... but his abrupt “I’m leaving��� as soon as the cg was off the screen made me feel like I had whiplash. 

I’d also use the word fortuitous to describe Lupin and the others showing up. Yes they knew to go to Tower Bridge, and I could see them deducing that the pair went over the edge, but there are two sides to a river people... and not knowing where they got out and on which side would make it really hard. Given how skilled they all are, I see it as way more possible than Fran showing up on the bridge, but it still pulled me out of the story to think “Hey... how’d they do that?”

Gotta admit, this touching moment (pun fully intended) was right up there with Impey holding Cardia’s hand. Absolutely no complaints here. 

...though I’m starting to understand @shell-senji‘s saltiness. Is Van the only one to not get a kiss and this moment? 

Speaking of the kiss, it was going so well. Nearly perfect with the tension and the emotion. (no those aren’t tears in my eyes!) And then... 

Gah and here’s another plot convenience tainting a perfect scene! Why?!? Someone correct me if I missed it, but how hard would it have been to put in a throw away line during his monologue about developing the Zicterium? Instead we get “Oh, by the way, it’s less toxic as a liquid. Isn’t that great?” Good grief you can’t just keep pulling these ‘revelations’ out of nowhere and expect me to not see them as plot hole fillers. 

Writer 1: So in the last desperate moments, she’s to weak to drink the life-saving elixir. To save her life Victor takes it into his mouth and kisses her, risking his own life to save hers. Writer 2: Wow that’s a great true ending! Writer 2: Wait... isn’t that stuff highly toxic? Won’t it kill him? Writer 1: Um... Well obviously it’s less toxic as a liquid. Writer 2: Uh huh. Sure it is.

This scene was wonderful and made perfect sense for his route, but I couldn’t help being a bit jealous. Come on Fran, get your butt in gear and find a cure in the other routes too! Why are you the only lucky one? I mean, what’s the kiss count now?

1st: Victor - 3+Cure 2nd: Impey - 2 3rd: Van Helsing - 0 (No, your “I just wanted my glasses” scene does not make up for the lack of kiss/touch scenes! -.- Trying to make up for something were we?)

I have to give Kakihara Tetsuya massive credit for voicing Fran. It wasn’t until his last line before the Zictirium tree-thing was about to go off and the screen faded to white that I had to pause the game as I thought “Wait! Wait! Wait just a gosh darn second! Was that... NATSU?!?!”

I tend not to look up voice actors until I have a suspicion that they’ve voiced someone else, purely because it can be hard to “unhear” another character. 

Morikubo Shōtarō is easily identifiable as Souji from Impey’s first line in the game, but I literally didn’t have even the faintest inkling that Kakihara had also voiced Natsu. It took me forever to stop hearing Souji in Impey, but even knowing that they’re voiced by the same person, I don’t hear Natsu at all in Fran. (except in those tense “I’m not giving up moments” which are quintessential Natsu :P) 

Back on the topic of romance (ish), I can’t help feeling that Leonhardt and Victoria stole the show a bit. I was genuinely shocked when Victoria stabbed Leonhardt and their moment in the hallway did a lot for humanizing Victoria and her reasoning. 

Honestly this was the BEST scene I have come across so far in any of the routes. I was laughing so hard I was crying. And then Cardia’s last line of “He must really hate caterpillars.” This extra was perfect XP

I can’t help feeling this plot had soooo much potential for me. Not only was the romance well built in, but the idea of the Zicterium gas and Victoria as the antagonist was fabulous, especially in light of history. I know it’s dumb to connect so fanciful a game to real life, but the events of WWI (~40 years after her death) gives so much weight to her worries of a future war where the loss would be catastrophic due to both sides having such advanced technology. Plus there’s the obvious connection between Zicteruim and the mustard gas used during WWI. Then there’s also Victor’s comment that war won’t give her what she wants and it will only create more bad blood. Something which can easily be seen in how the repercussions of the end of WWI led right into WWII. 

Despite my complaints, I really really did like Fran and his route... *sigh* I think I just got ripped out of the story one too many times and the individual moments weren’t quite enough to make up for it.