#just in case for jesse's inner dialogue a bit here

[embodies]

like a lifeline thrown, the pill bottle is seized with eagerness and trembling hands only aid the rattle of its contents as he pours a generous collection into his palm. jesse throws them back like a shot, any hesitation or squeamishness surrounding pills with no fluids temporarily extinguished for a greater need. he would be lying if there wasn't a consideration, staring into the open mouth of the bottle, to rinse the rest. to go for a second handful, cupping the tiny tablets like a baby bird, and a third and a fourth and however many it takes. the thought sends a shiver down his spine, leading him to rid himself of the container as quickly as he'd reached for it. he daren't look at it anymore. ❛ yeah. ❜ his agreement for the direness situation is drily delivered, a spark igniting of that rage he experienced earlier. don't you think i know this is fucked, vic ? do you need to rub it in ? he manages to quell it this time, clasping his hands together and cracking his knuckles, forever fidgeting. detachment of his emotions from spreading to his very uninvolved friend, reminding himself of who the real culprits in this web are.

his paranoia matches vic's, on the rise as the substances dissolve into his system, baby blue gaze shifting left and right as if anyone is suspect. and, to some extent, they are. he finds it hard to explain ( or to justify ? ) the symbiotic relationship he and walt share, the innate trust he has in his mentor counter - balanced by doubt all the same. interestingly, he knows walt needs him. for what purpose remains to be seen, but one absolute truth that remains steadfast is that. walt would not kill him. that sets the standard, at least. the bar is on the ground. in the dirt, pushed in by an uncaring heel. ❛ without me, there is no walt. that's— that's just how it is. ❜ as if it were an algebraic formula, no rationale or equation he can use to fully categorise it. a shrug of the shoulders punctuates the silence for a moment, a deep breath taken in as the wave of effects from the pills starts to settle into his bones.

❛ well — you know, now, i guess. 's not exactly . . . somethin' i'm keen to mention at show and tell. ❜ the humour comes out empty, deflated. his posture is wilted, a plant devoid of water. they're a far cry from those days relinquished to jesse's makeshift couch, smoking the worries away, momentarily carefree. onto harder drugs, tougher tensions, the criminal's version of growing up. it feels hard to see a way out, defeat slumping him further into his seat until their shoulders lean unto one another. if he were in better spirits, he might at least be grateful for this small beacon of friendship amidst the turmoil. not that he wants to speak it into existence, but he fears this night of camaraderie might be their last.

jesse  confirms  everything  victor  didn't  want  him  to  ,     everything  victor  didn't  want  to  be  true.     head  shakes  ,     and  victor  inspects  the  cocktail  of  pills  in  his  hand  ,     before  knocking  them  back  all  too  eagerly.     fucking  hell.    the  bottle  is  passed  to  jessie  without  hesitation  ,    as  victor  leans  forward  against  his  own  knees  ,     pressing  the  heels  of  his  hands  into  his  forehead.     walt  didn't  do  anything.     what  else  is  new  ?     but  to  make  jesse   .  .  . 

a  quiet  groan  ,     hands  moving  down  to  press  into  his  eyes  instead.           ❛❛  jesus  christ  ,     jesse.  ❜❜           its  not  disappointment  that  litters  his  tone  ,     at  least  ,     and  not  fear———no  ,     victor  is  all  concern  ,     the  heaviness  in  his  voice  that  of  utter  sadness.     he  can't  imagine  his  friend  ever  doing  something  like  that  of  his  own  accord  ,     without  the  influence  of  walter  white.     his  stomach  turns.           ❛❛  i  won't  even  ask  if  you're  okay  ,     i  can  already  tell  what  the  answer  would  be.     that's  so   .  .  .   this  is  fucked  ,     jesse.     i  mean  fucked.  ❜❜           victor's  heart  begins  to  race  ,     and  he  can't  tell  if  its  the  pills  or  the  anxiety.     what  does  this  mean  for  jesse  ?     what  happens  now  ?     what  if  gus  has  him  killed  ,     what  if———what  if  anything  ?     he  could  drum  up  a  thousand  different  scenarios.     he  takes  another  drag  ,     begging  it  to  do  something.

❛❛  what  ,     um   .  .  .     i  mean  ,     what's  goin'  on  ?     is  walt  doing  something  to  keep  you  safe  ?  ❜❜           here  his  voice  lowers  ,     as  though  worried  prying  eyes  and  ears  could  be  anywhere  ,     around  the  corner.           ❛❛  does  anyone  know  ?    i  can't  figure  you've  ever  done  this  before.  ❜❜

[i-may-have-a-point]

Review of 13x23 “True Colors”

I have not said this since 13x16, but this was a great episode of Grey’s Anatomy.  Was it perfect?  No. But it did show us that the show we have loved for so long is still capable of bringing it.  I have a feeling this is going to be a long review, so grab a seat, and let me know what you think.

The episode opens with Meredith talking about those moments in life when everything seems to be going well. She says it’s as if the stars align. And we’ve all been there right? Literally, everything is perfect…so we’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop.  And in this episode, the shoe crushes them.  

It’s interesting that the last episode I loved was directed by Kevin McKidd because this one was, too. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors for the show.  I thought the scene where the Army soldiers show up at his door to tell him about Megan was so well done.  I know it was frustrating to not hear exactly what they said to him, but it is also realistic.  In life, there are often life-altering moments that we don’t see coming, and it is as if we are not fully experiencing them.  Our body is there, but our mind goes someplace else.  For Owen, he is thrown back into his experiences overseas, finding out Megan’s plane crashed, and the guilt of being the one to tell her to get on the plane.  He hears what they are saying, but he isn’t processing it correctly because of his PTSD. This is such a likely reaction from someone who has been through what he has, and Kevin impressed me with his delivery of it.

Stephanie returns to the hospital.  Webber signs off on her returning, probably so he can feel guilty later, and she jumps back in to work.  I am still trying to figure out the point of her suspension if they weren’t actually going to go anywhere with her supposed anger issues.  I guess in a roundabout way it led to her being on the rapist’s case because Eliza wouldn’t let her do Neuro, but other than that…

Alex is in L.A. imagining multiple scenarios of pummeling Jo’s husband.  I have to say, as much as I don’t want Alex in jail, a part of me was sad that he didn’t really leave him bloody on the sidewalk.  And this is a good sign for Jolex, even if Jo wasn’t even in the episode.  The fact that Alex envisions different ways of hurting the man who hurt her shows how much he still loves her.  

Then we meet our patients. April and Bailey are with Allison, and Deluca and Stephanie have Keith.  It looks like they were having sex in their car and one of them accidently hit the gas pedal, which causes lots of sex talk amongst the doctors throughout the episode. They never pass up a reason to talk about sex at Grey-Sloan.

Cut to Owen on the elevator. He is still very much in his own head. The muffled audio and focus on the sound of Owen’s breathing instead was an effective way to show that he is not registering his surroundings.  All he hears are his own thoughts.  The baby who choked on the coin comes in, completely blue.  Owen’s survival instincts are still there.  He may be rough and insensitive, but he saves her.

Back to Allison. April, Bailey, and Maggie are working on her.  Maggie says, “I hope the sex was good.”  April replies, “Is sex in a car ever that good with all those windows?”  And the Japril fandom freaked.  Guys, I get it.  It’s been eight weeks.  But this was not a dig at the 11x16 Japril scenes.  This was a genuine April Kepner reaction.  April, who was a virgin until she was almost thirty and has had sex with one man in her entire life, is definitely not an exhibitionist.  And I’m gonna get a little TMI here, but she’s right.  The backseat of a car is not roomy, seat belts end up in places they shouldn’t be, and then there is the paranoia that someone could see you.  I’m with April.  Car sex may be fun and hot at times, but there are many other places it could be better.

Allison wakes up asking if the guy she was with is alive, and at this point, the entire audience knew something was up, but of course, our Grey-Sloan doctors do not.

Jackson, Stephanie, Meredith, and Deluca are with Keith.  Eliza is there to complain about something, as usual, and Stephanie gets stuck with babysitting duty.

We have our first hint that Erin, the little girl who keeps wandering away, is going to have more of a story when Mer finds her digging through drawers in the hallway that they apparently don’t keep locked but are full of loaded syringes of epinephrine. Totally believable.

Arizona and Amelia give the choking baby a clean bill of health and Amelia gets her first hint that something is up with Owen when the parents ask to see him because he “pounded” on her.  Amelia finds him.  He snaps at her, but she doesn’t push him for more yet.  

Jackson and Stephanie are conveniently in the room with Keith when he wakes up. Props to Jesse Williams for pulling that tube dripping in saliva out of his mouth with no gloves. When I saw the spit drop, I gagged a little.  Keith seems like a sweet, concerned boyfriend.  Poor Keith, right?

Mer and Riggs find Erin in the radiology department messing with equipment.  Mer’s comments, “I know this girl.  She’s trouble,” and “Some people just need a nanny,” seem off to me considering she went off on a guy for mom shaming a woman in the plane episode who was just trying to do her best in the situation.  This feels like a similar situation and she has a completely different reaction.  Now, obviously this was just a moment they threw in there so Mer could see how great Riggs is with kids, but they still need to write her character consistently. They return Erin to her dad and Mer invites Riggs to dinner with her kids.  If I’m being honest, I’m still not completely sold on their chemistry.  I personally think Riggs and Maggie could have been interesting, but this is Grey’s Anatomy, so Grey gets the guy.

Then we get the scene by the OR board with Maggie, Deluca, Arizona, Stephanie, Jackson, and Eliza discussing Allison and Keith and sex.  There is a lot being said in this scene and the dialogue moves fast, so I had to watch it a couple times to see and hear everything.  Arizona says, “Car sex is only for when it’s new.”  Jackson adds, “Or it could be cheating.”  And again, the Japril fandom flipped out.  Ya’ll.  Again, this is not about 11x16.  Honestly, that comment is about Jackson and Stephanie having sex in the car after Bailey’s wedding if anything.  Stephanie picks up on it, too, I think, which is why she gives him a look and smacks his arm. Jackson and April were not technically together when he had sex with Stephanie, but he felt so bad about it, he went to tell April because he didn’t want her to hear it from someone else. Sounds like it felt like cheating to him.  There is more talk of how uncomfortable car sex is and then they transition to how sweet it is that Keith and Alison asked about each other.  They discuss whether it was love or not and Jackson says, “This isn’t love we are talking about here.  This was emergency sex, and they were just too damn horny to remember the parking break.”  Cue freak out number three.  Again, I think he is actually talking about this specific situation.  The camera didn’t linger on his face to show him deep in thought of his own situation, which Grey’s often does when lines have a deeper meaning. But if I force myself to read into this and relate it to Japril, I just think it means they are confused about what Montana meant.  Jackson and April have been talking about sex a lot in the episodes since Montana, so my guess it they are either having it or they want to be.  I didn’t get any negative Japril vibes from any of their comments about sex in this episode.  

Mer and Amelia.  I really wish they would have let Mer listen to Amelia in this scene.  If they are sisters, they should listen to each other, but Amelia is often told her problems are a result of her overreacting while Mer’s problems are real and should be dealt with.  I wanted this scene to go differently for once.  

Amelia sees Owen freak out on the baby’s parents and realizes he is not okay.  These two have had some great scenes lately, and this episode is full of more good stuff with them.  We find out Megan is alive.  I really think that this is setting up a season 14 story.  Megan showing up is something we all saw coming since season 12 (just like Jo’s husband returning), and it will create drama for at least Owen, Amelia, Mer, and Riggs.  I am interested to see how things play out with Riggs and Mer because Riggs loved Megan at one point.  It is all a bit too similar to Derek and Addison, but as long as it doesn’t take them 27 episodes to do anything with it, it could be good.

Brooke Stadler, huh? How does Alex know all of this? Did Jo tell him?  I think he said he hired a private investigator, but he would have had to have a name to investigate in the first place. Whatever.  I’ll let it go because the story is moving right now.  We all know it could be worse.

They remembered Teddy Altman!  Another small detail that made this episode really good.  

The Jackson and Maggie elevator scene.  Guys, go back and rewatch this scene.  Maggie is 100% talking about her views on Mer and Riggs.  This is her reacting to the small scene at the beginning where she watches Mer and Riggs switch badges because they have each other’s.  She is sitting behind the nurses’ desk and the camera shows her briefly.  She is clearly still hurting.  She says, “Maybe they are in love or maybe they were just horny.  It doesn’t matter.  We all love, we all get horny, and we all get hurt.  And then we come through to the other side.  And we get to help them do that.  We get to help them find love again…or screw again.  Either way.  But I think they’re in love.  I choose love.”  That entire ramble was her inner debate over whether Mer and Riggs are in love or just screwing.  That is why she uses we to describe it.  She is a part of what she is talking about.  She is the one who got hurt that she mentions.  But she is choosing to believe that Mer and Riggs love each other because that makes it hurt less.  This is not her hinting about sex or love with Jackson.  And he is just letting her talk.  He evens says he has no idea what she is talking about.  And he barely looks at her when they have scenes together.  They have been in scenes often since 13x12/13x13, whenever her mom showed up. There have been zero looks, zero lingering touches, zero moments of slow music playing in the background.  We miss Japril so much that people are reading into these scenes.  Stop doing that!

Then, Allison shatters all their illusions that she was having some lust filled car sex by telling Bailey, Maggie, and Jackson that Keith kidnapped her and tried to rape her. They call security and Jackson realizes that Stephanie is with him.  I know not everyone liked this, but I, for one, appreciate his concern.  She is his friend, and she is with a dangerous man. I would be surprised if he wasn’t concerned.  I also want to add that the guy playing creepy Keith is a great actor.  He was believable as both the concerned boyfriend and the psychotic killer.  Great casting.

Alex lets Paul go without saying anything.  Just like Megan being transferred to Grey-Sloan, this is a set up for next season’s drama.  These are those seeds that Debbie was talking about.  

When Keith stood up and held that scalpel to Steph’s neck, I really wanted her to punch him in the liver. She’s a badass.  I wanted to see her take him down.

Owen sleeping on Amelia’s lap was the sweetest thing.  We need more loving moments between our main couples.  This episode had no fighting couples or relationship drama, and it was one of the best of the season.  I hope someone who matters is paying attention to that.  

For Japril lovers, watch the scene where Bailey is giving instructions to the security team and calling for a code orange again.  They deliberately show April is in the room with Allison, then Jackson comes in and announces Keith and Stephanie are missing.  The camera pulls away, but if you watch Jackson, his eyes are in that room on April.  It’s a small moment, but it’s there.  

Jerrika Hinton was fantastic in all the scenes with Keith.  The scenes on the stairs and in the hallway they were trapped in had me on the edge of my seat not breathing.  And then Erin appeared.  “Hi.” Creepy Keith asked her name, and I started freaking out.  Where has this fantastic storytelling been all season?!  

Mer took learning that Rigg’s fiancé is alive better than I would have.  But she makes a good point.  If it were Derek, she would want to know immediately.  As much as I am not into Griggs, if they do this story right in season 14, it could be really compelling.  

Jackson and Maggie sit on the gurney and talk about Stephanie.  Jackson is stressing.  I get the question of why isn’t he worried about April and Harriet.  But, come on, he specifically knows Stephanie was with him because he left her there.  He feels responsible.  This doesn’t take away from the fact that he cares about April and Harriet and wants them to be safe, but this story is about Stephanie right now.  And as much as my Japril heart wants him to go check on his girls, I just pointed out that he saw April.  He knows she is okay right now.  They showed April in that room for a reason, so we knew Jackson saw her. They didn’t make a big thing of it, but it happened.  And again, nothing about this conversation between the two of them is anything to freak out about.

As hard as the scene where Keith tries to start the fire is to watch, I have to say I am so damn proud of Stephanie.  It’s violent, and it’s ugly, but how badass is it that she literally set a rapist on fire? Unfortunately, he didn’t burn fast enough to take the crazy out of him.  His last act alive is to purposefully set off an explosion, and Stephanie selflessly tries to stop him.  Now this may be a spoiler, and I apologize if it is, but we know from the BTS pic that Sarah Drew posted that April, Jackson, Ben, Bailey, and Webber more than likely operate on Stephanie in the finale, so she is probably not dead at this point.   I say at this point because I think she does die in the finale.  

I know this is a long post, and if you have made it this far, thank you for sticking in there.  I do have one more thing I want to talk about, though, and that is Japril.  Or rather Jackson, April, and Stephanie.  I know that so many of us are waiting for the finale to come through for Japril to decide if we stick around for season 14.  I’m with you all on that, but I want to throw something out there I have been thinking about. Maybe I’m overanalyzing or maybe not, but here goes.  

I think that in life, and in fiction, people meet for a reason.  Sometimes it’s a good reason.  We find friends, lovers, mentors, or just a helping hand or needed smile.  Sometimes we meet people for reasons that aren’t always good.  These are the people who teach us the hardest lessons.  They hurt us, they leave us, they damage us, but we come out stronger in the end.  I think that Stephanie was a part of Jackson and April’s life for a reason. Maybe the show didn’t get this deep with their connection, but I can’t help but wonder.  Stephanie joined the show in season nine.  Correct me if I am wrong, but the first scene that April and Stephanie interact in is the scene where April sets Jackson and Stephanie up for Bailey’s wedding.  This is obviously a significant moment between the three of them although none of them knew how significant at the time.  This moment leads to the car sex that Jackson calls cheating in this episode, and of course, that moment where April tells Jackson that all she can think about is kissing him. April unintentionally hurt herself by setting them up, but she acts like an adult and doesn’t treat Edwards badly.  We see this in the scene where she teaches her to run the pit.  It’s the same episode where Jackson and Stephanie are trying to have sex, but she mentions April’s name and he can’t go through with it.  “Kepner’s running me ragged.”   Instead of going with his feelings, Jackson dates (ignores?) Stephanie and April gets engaged to Matthew.  Stephanie being in their lives at this point helps Jackson learn a hard lesson.  He realizes while working on his first big throat patient that he loves and wants to be with April.  He stands up at April’s wedding (Thank God), but Stephanie gets hurt in the process.  The dynamic between the three of them has always been this cycle of hurting and learning from each other.  Stephanie seems to get over the hurt of Jackson leaving her, and we don’t see much interaction between the three of them until we get that awkward scene where Stephanie does the ultrasound and ultimately discovers Samuel’s OI.  I think it was completely intentional on the show’s part that Stephanie was the one to find this.  She tells Jo that she wished horrible things for them, although she would have never wished for this.  This is another time when they are in each other’s lives at a significant point and one of them hurts the other.  It’s not intentional, but it happens.  They hurt, they learn from it, and they move forward.  After this point, things are not good with Japril.  April goes to Jordon, Jackson is hurt by her, and she returns to an uncertain situation.  In 12x05, Jackson uses Stephanie to hurt April.  It’s subtle, but it’s there.  Her flirts with her just enough to get a side eye from April and from the audience.  The cycle continues.  For a bit, it seemed as if the purpose for Stephanie being in Jackson and April’s lives had been fulfilled.  April and Stephanie even seemed almost friends.  They work well together, Steph helps her with Tinder, and they banter in the on-call room when April is sleep deprived.  It seems as if they are all done hurting each other.  Until now.  So here is where most of this is just my theory or speculation.   There is a reason that Jackson is the one who left Stephanie with Keith.  This is another way one of them has hurt the other, but this way ends up being physical.  And I think that Stephanie being hurt and Jackson feeling guilty over it will be the last lesson he learns from Stephanie being in his life.  I think that Jackson and April are on the team that works on her in the next episode, but they aren’t able to save her.  Stephanie dying would be incredibly significant for Jackson since he feels responsible, and may prompt him to finally tell April how he feels. This is the last lesson.  I think that Stephanie had a significant role in pulling them apart in season nine, and she will have a significant role in putting them back together now.  As usual, I could be wrong.  This could all be coincidence and the writers may not have put this much thought into this dynamic.  Either way, we find out for sure in one week.  Try to hang in there Japril fans.  There is no excuse for the poor writing and continuity, but from the BTS pics and videos that Jesse, Sarah and Debbie posted, it looks like we will finally see them interact at least.  And if they let us down, then, don’t worry, I will have plenty to say about that.  

[kaibutsushidousha]

Free Time Event Review

I should have done this on Sunday, but clearly foodposting is a huge priority.

Arguably spoiler-free:

Rantarou Amami: 4.5/10. The events did an excellent job making me learn a lot about Amami. What it didn’t do was make me like Amami though. In fact it made me like him less and the last event felt like a scam. Highlights were the second event (amazing demonstration of Amami’s emotional state regarding the killing game) and him taking a jab at my country’s politics in the 4th event.

Miu Iruma: 1.5/10. Believe it or not, I was really looking forward for this one. Iruma was a character with a lot of questions I was curious about. Why does she swings so easily from ridiculous arrogant to ridiculous unassertive? Where do her abondonment issues stem from? And the most interesting for me is her obsession with time. Almost every time someone starts conversation with her she complains about wasting her time, her main series of inventions are things that allow people to act while their sleep so they can have more time in a day and even her dislike in the report card is idle time. That’s what I really wanted to know about. Iruma’s humor is unreadably unfunny, but I was very willing to tolerate that to get the answers I was curious about. What I got instead were 3 purely comedical events, 2 pseudo-romantic waifubaiting events, 1 event that half-answers the least interesting question and 1 stupid and pointless backstory that doesn’t tie to any of her main personality traits. I dug through all this garbage and the interesting parts of Iruma’s personality were barely acknowledged. I would give it 1 but I’m giving it an extra half point because Kaede can punch Iruma in one optional dialogue. It would be 2 if said scene wasn’t optional.

Kokichi Ouma: 8/10. Ouma’s events also don’t answer any questions about him, but in this case it’s not a problem because the main story clarifies a lot about him. The events do have great hints for it though, specially 2 and 5. The rest of his are mostly comedy (except the last one, which is more shipbait), which is great because Ouma comedy is top tier. The event where he challenges you to a card game and starts roleplaying Kaiba is the single most funny event in the entire franchise.

Ki-bo: 8/10. An unexpected favorite. Half of his events are wasted in 2 events of him showing off his functions and of 2 comedy events as boring as Ki-bo comedy is, but the remaining 3 are pretty great. Event 2 is surprisingly actually funny Ki-bo comedy, event 4 is a backstory adds quite a bit of emotional weight to Ki-bo’s main story role and the last one gives great focus to the thing I like the most about Ki-bo.

Gonta Gokuhara: 6/10. Gonta’s events were good and nice to read. That’s it, I guess. I have absolutely nothing to complain about, but nothing spectacular to praise either. It’s just Gonta being Gonta and that’s very nice. It has some good comedy and I like how the events tie in with each other.  I absolutely loved the direction his wolf backstory took and it contains some bits of foreshadowing hidden in it. 

Shuuichi Saihara: 4/10. I already talked in more detail about this one in a spoiler tagged ask, but so you can look that up in my Saihara tag. I was really conflicted on how to grade this one. In one hand, it has two of my favorite events in the game (2 and 5). On the other hand, it has the sixth event spitting on the reasons I like Saihara at least three times. To make things worse, it has a good ammount of romance events that barely adds anything to either character. I know SaiAka is the main pairing of the game and I even ship it, but I don’t want 3 entire events wasted on that. Well, as you can tell from the 2 events I love, at least it’s not as terrible as Nanami, who wastes all her 5 events with minimal information about her. 

Tsumugi Shirogane: 7.5/10. Biased opinion time. Nothing special happens in her events, but they are actually better this way. The main charm in Shirogane is how her dialogue feels like a normal conversation with a real friend, more so than any of the other characters. Quoting myself “Talking to Shirogane feels exactly like reading my Twitter timeline”. The event where she brags about her blandness is also pretty funny. The foreshadowing here is also pretty clever and subtle.

Korekiyo Shinguuji: 9/10. Don’t ge me wrong, I still hate Shinguuji as much as the next guy, but also don’t forget he used to be one of my favorites before I got to know him better. Unlike the main story, the Free Time focus almost completely in the good parts of him. I love his talent and hearing him talking about culture is always enjoyable. That aside, we also have the event about his mask, which is absolutely hilarious and would probably be my favorite comedy event if wasn’t biased by my love for Yugioh. Speaking of comedy, as his bonus mode dates prove a lot, Shinguuji is kind of a goldmine for dramatic irony-based fucked up comedy, so if you’re into that, I STRONGLY recommend doing his second event before chapter 2.

Tenko Chabashira: 5/10. I love Chabashira and it was a very fun ride from event 2 to the end (event 1 is just Chabashira trashtalking men for an entire event), but it has a few issues. Mainly her backstory and the discussion about it relying on her being unbelievably dumb. But overall, it had some great highlights that made me like her even more, like the talk about idols and superheroes on events 2 and 5 respectively.

Kirumi Toujou: 2/10. Same idea as my comments about Iruma, but with only one question: why is she so dedicated to her maid job if it’s described only as part-time job her? She clearly denies her own individuality for the sake of serving and we get no explanation for it. All we get is 7 events of Toujou just being her completely unnapealling self. No traces of humanity detected. There’s one time it feels like Kodaka thinks he is giving her a character flaw but he really isn’t. She’s somehow even worse than Kamukura. This events were a great reminder why I despise maid characters and made me appreciate a lot more the characters I used to compared Toujou to (Hisui from Tsukihime and Medaka from Medaka Box) because those two managed to be good characters despite belonging to this terrible archetype.

Maki Harukawa: 7/10. They are kinda bleak and completely lacking in comedy, but they expand on Harukawa’s already great backstory in interesting ways and really shows her worldview much more comprehensively. I just find it bad that the final 3 events talk about her backstory but you can access them before Harukawa reveals her backstory in the main story, so the characters allude to a conversation they haven’t had yet (happened to Jess).

Ryouma Hoshi: 8.5/10. Overall pretty nice set of events. The first event is cute cat event very similar to Peko’s first, second is not great one of just him being edgy, third and fourth is tennis backstory and fifth and sixth is the part of the backstory we all wanted to know about. Overall nice and very solid events with a great balance between good characterization, comedy and foreshadowing. I would give a 6/10 if they ended there. Yup, you read that right, I’m entire 2.5 extra points just because of Hoshi’s last event. So good. Easily the most heartwarming event in the entire game. Hoshi being happy is something extremely satisfying to watch.

Kaito Momota: 7/10. Pretty solid and expansive on Momota’s good qualities. I like how they tie-in a lot of his traits to his astronaut talent. His backstory is also a fun read, but the highlights there go to the inner reactions to the story, like not believing the story is real and constantly going “This story is way too long, when are we getting to the part about space?”.

Himiko Yumeno: 7.5/10. Like with Sakura, the events are a single story told in multiple parts (except for the first two). It’s good characterization, fun and resonates well with game’s central themes just like Chabashira’s, but with much more respect to Yumeno’s intelligence. Also, the second event is all about my favorite thing about Yumeno and the first has optional dialogue saying Yumeno eats books and that never stops being funny.

Angie Yonaga: 0.5/10. Free Times that do the thing that needs to be done: makes understand a lot about Angie. The problem is that the more you know about Angie, the worst she gets. Her 5th event in particular was infuriating and repulsive enough to drop this grade from 5 to 0.5.