#lancer seems v cool!!

[lunariarts]

If a ttrpg has options for the player characters to be furries, they will succeed. Homebrew can solve any problem, but baked in RAW furry rules are your ticket to fame.

Cyberpunk: Absolute horseshit no one is running around as one those handsome little robot sergal fuckers

Lancer: Deergirl piloting a mech, fuck with me

Monster of the Week: Become Cryptid

DnD: Pirate all of their content, become tabaxi, come aarakocra, become harengon, become leonin

Monopoly: play it in your fursuit you had to pass go fifteen fucking times to afford I guess

SO fucking true. My enjoyment of a setting is hands in hands with how many weird lil fellas there are running around. Like one of my sonas is a kobold I'm not immune to furrybait ttrpgs

Also can you actually play as a deergirl in Lancer because uhhh uhmmm 👉👈

[hirocimacruiser]

Puma Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V

Mitsubishi TEST&SERVICE

Debuted in the second race. In qualifying, he suddenly took the first corner of R. In the finals, he was at the top for a while. 4th place in qualifying (1st in class), 4th in final (1st in class). Driver: Akihiko Nakatani/Sakae Obata.

③Suspension damper is KYB. The spring is Ralliart. ④Safety fuel tank is made by ATN. Capacity is 120ℓ. ⑤The steering wheel is MOMO buckskin. ⑥ The meter is Pi system. On the left is the Omori boost gauge. ⑦The door hinges are carved out because they hit the roll cage. (8, 9) was originally a work RS-Z (8JX 17). The tires are 225/45R17 ADVAN. 1⑩ Replace the radiator with one made by Denso. (11) The oil cooler is genuine. (12) Aero mirror is Valdisport. ⑬The rear is equipped with a differential cooler. LSD is Ralliart (viscous only in the center). (14)The roll bar passes through the bulkhead. The tower bar is Valdisport. There was a WRC plan for the ECU, but the current one is the original. Commercialization is also under consideration. (15)The muffler is thin, about 80mm. (16)The yellow part on the console is the starter, and the one below is the water spray. (17) The roll cage is for FIA-approved rallies. (18) shift is a sword. The knob is a small screwdriver, which is my preference. (19) seats are Valdisport Type II. (20) The roll cage looks like a bird cage. Please compare it with the Impreza on the right.

In the second race, they defeated the Nissan Development Team's GT-R. The tire size/tread has been expanded since Evo IV, reducing the time by approximately 2 seconds.

Exceeded IV in all aspects. There are no flaws!

``The new EVO V has solved all the shortcomings of the EVO IV . In particular, thanks to the wider tread, cornering speed has improved dramatically. It has become my specialty.'' Mr. Yamada of Test & Service maintains the ``Puma Evo,'' which achieved amazing times and came close to the G T-R. When building the vehicle, they placed emphasis on improving the suspension, which is subject to increased strain due to the increased cornering force. Therefore, in testing and service, even if a high input value is added, it cannot be accepted.

I decided to build a strong body. However, the main difference from the Impreza is that instead of welding reinforcement such as adding more spots, the main reinforcement is the extensive use of a strong roll bar that penetrates the body and is also used in WRC. Looking at each part, there are only a few welded parts. The weight is also 30kg more than the standard. This idea is common to the EVO era. With the reinforcement so far, the driver

``I can feel the movement of my feet''

It seems that the comments are satisfying. The engine has a proven track record of being packed to the hilt, starting with the Evo, and is powerful and stable enough to keep its rivals at bay. The cooling performance seems to be high, and the original oil cooler is used as is. “If we keep boiling it down like this, we can last for at least one fight.”

Nakatani seemed to be breathing heavily.

PROVA Eifel Dunlop GC8 Impreza

Debuted in last year's final race! Suddenly took first place in qualifying. This year, he will participate in the second race. 12th place in qualifying (8th in class), retired in finals. Driver: Kazuo Shimizu/Tsutomu Shibuya.

④ The fuel tank is 120ℓ. (5, 6, 7) All aero parts are Prova. The side duct is effective in cooling the brakes. ⑧⑨ The tires are DL/Formula R (205/ 50R16) and the Enkei Sports 7.5J x 16. (10) differential cooler is made by Calsonic. (11) The Prova damper and spring are Swift from Tokyo Spring. (12) Two oil coolers are installed on the engine and one on the transmission. In particular, the latter has a high calorific value and is a must-have item. The radiator is also a large capacity type. ⑬The steering wheel is Impul 913 special. (14)The engine is STi tuned. Management is the same as for WRC cars. The roll cage has been changed and the battery has been made smaller. (15)The seat is full carbon made by Mooncraft. (16) The roll cage is very simple. (17,18) meter is Pi system. On the console, from the right, there is a transmission oil pump, a differential oil pump, and a reserve tank switch for using up to the last liter. Below is a display switch for the Pi data logger. ⑲The square plate visible at the back of the rear center section is the weight. (20) The rear suspension mounting area has been fully reinforced with welding.

This is the first car that Fuji Heavy Industries has officially started working on, from rally to circuit. Once you get used to the world of racing, it can be intimidating.

Unexpected or unexpected. 4 doors are more rigid than 2 doors

``Thanks to the horizontally opposed engine, everything is symmetrical, which means excellent weight balance.This is the lifeblood and appeal of this car.Also, by making full use of the four-wheel drive provided, cornering performance is improved. However, it's the direction of the settings. Thanks to this, the advantage is that you can turn with the same feeling whether it's a rainy day or a sunny day.'' Mr. Fukushima from Bulova Race Garage will be participating in the race. However, the design is older than its rivals, and it seems that the body rigidity is completely lacking, so strengthening it is necessary for the vehicle.

The most important item in production. especially the way it twists

It is said that reinforcement has been focused on the suspension mounting area (to increase suspension rigidity). Also, since last year, the use of flashy two-doors has been allowed in Super Taikyu, but the only reason why four-doors are still used is because they are highly rigid.

The roll cage isn't used much either visually. This was done to reduce weight, and only the minimum necessary parts were included after thorough body reinforcement. The weight was 30kg lighter than the standard, and 30kg was placed as weight on the passenger seat and rear center to thoroughly improve the weight balance. The body is completely finished, but is this it?

Their problem is the engine. It's a little lacking in power. If I go up a little bit more, I can catch up with EVO. It seems like STi's hard work will determine what happens next.

[scales-claws-and-thorns]

(Count)Down to Dawntrail Free Day :V

Look at me, actually doing all seven days, woo!

Considering one of the options for the free day was "talk about how the game and the people you have met have made an impact on your life", I'm going to go with that.

This is going to be a long one

I started playing FFXIV back in the ARR open beta. At the time, I didn't have a good gaming PC but I did have a PS3 and I saw XIV as an opportunity to play a game with my then-GF and roommate. I picked lancer because it would become dragoon and I really dug the armor. The character was a male keeper because fangs. I even dug up a picture.

Look at him. Obviously this is not lancer but of the few pictures I do have at the time this is probably the clearest one haha.

I had also picked Adamantoise as the world to be on :V

At some point, I joined an FC called .. I think it was Order of the Wild Rose? And I followed some of the people who were members of that FC on tumblr. This is important.

Anyway, I played off and on (I was terrible looking back lol), sometimes I would talk with other FC people, sometimes I would just .. do quests and try to figure out what I should be doing. But, my then-partner quit and so did my roommate and I just.

Okay, so, to try to get myself more attached to the game, I decided to try RP. I made a character on Balmung :) I joined a new FC :) and I even had my first ever RP with them!! And then I deleted the character.

:D

I don't know, I had this problem of becoming suddenly self conscious and afraid that I was doing things wrong and I would rapidly pull out of whatever I had tried to do. This was definitely not the first time I'd done this.

At that point, I had decided I might quit FFXIV. I didn't feel as connected as I wanted to and so maybe I would just let the sub lapse and move on. But! I did transfer that moon cat up there onto Balmung first because there was a brief thought of maybe trying RP on him. Which I didn't do. But now he lived on Balmung.

Fast forward ... I don't know how many months later and HW was releasing. I was still following some people I had followed back in that old FC and knew they had also ended up on Balmung. And I saw all of them be rather excited about the new expac coming out (you know, kind of like right now).

At the time, I was dealing with what would become my diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis and couldn't work. I desperately needed something to do and people to talk to because otherwise I would just be kind of alone sitting at home.

I decided I had three options: Elder Scrolls Online, FFXIV, or return to Destiny with a vengeance (I had played a ton of it and even was in a clan, I'd just quit by this point).

I ended up landing on FFXIV because... well, I was following people who played it! Technically, I had an in! Maybe I could even join that new FC of theirs! They seemed to be having a lot of fun!

So I get myself a sub, boot up the game, and fantasia that moon cat into a Xaela. And this is when Tai arrived!

It wasn't until I had gotten into Ishgard and then leveled Dark Knight that I started RPing. And it wasn't until a couple months after that where I did end up joining The Riskbreakers. But I did, in fact, end up joining that new FC of theirs. It turns out, they remembered my old character's name!

I met a lot of cool people through that FC. And many of them helped me out a ton a couple years later when I ended up becoming homeless for a time. I am forever grateful for all of their help.

But that isn't all of the cool people I met.

At the end that same year I joined the Riskbreakers, I joined another RP group called Rendezvous of the Stars. And it is through this group that I would meet my current girlfriend of .. it'll be eight years in July.

Several years after that during Shadowbringers, I would end up (through more connections) meeting my boyfriend as well! Along with one of two awesome roommates.

The other roommate was technically also through the Riskbreakers later down the line.

Man Risk has done a lot for me haha

I need you all to understand that if not for this game, my life would look so much different. I like to say that it saved my life, in fact. Maybe not directly, but through all the wonderful people I met who made such an impact on my life.

I can imagine that I will be continuing to play this game until they stop updating it entirely and then even then I'll probably still pop in from time to time until they shut down the servers.

It is just extremely important to me, in all sorts of ways. From the two best partners a guy could ask for, to every single fantastic friend along the way, and even to all the brief connections with strangers..

I don't think I could ever really put into words just how much this game means to me.

I hope to see you all in Dawntrail!

[paperandhis-paper]

Arc-V Month Day 13: Abyss Beneath a Smile

A bit behind, but I have a reason for this. And that's I promised to talk about this bastard:

Aaand I spent all of yesterday unable to come up what I wanted to say. It just be like that sometimes. In fairness, part of the reason for that is that Roget is far from the deepest villain. He’s a simple, but really fun antagonist you love to hate. And sometimes, that’s all you need.

From the moment the Lancers arrive in the Synchro Dimension, he seems untouchable, smugly manipulating everyone from his place of control while the main cast is down in the City suffering. This combined with all the nasty shit he pulls makes you wanna see him go down, and boy does Arc-V deliver in that front. His VA nails his breakdown perfectly, that “SERGEY” scream lives rent-free in my mind.

He’s also a type of villain I personally adore, which is the Smug Snake who thinks they’re hot shit, but is actually pathetic in the grand scheme of things. His “grand scheme” of controlling one city is called out by Reiji to be pathetic, and despite all his boasting, he’s always scared shitless of Yuri and of Academia, capturing Yuzu and Serena simply as a chip to trade in case he needs to save his sorry-ass. 

Control is his whole thing, shown through the recurring chess motifs and his brainwashing of Security, Sergey (sorta), and attempted brainwashing of Yuya. And I love how, once the Commons start rioting, he and Yuya’s plan are, at a glance, the same. He wants to, via Sergey, defeat Jack and unite the city… difference being that he wants to crush the city’s dreams to have them united under his control, whereas Yuya wants to bring everyone together smiling. It’s such a cool little set-up, having both the villain and hero seek the same goal, but in such different ways.

Speaking of Sergey, let me talk a bit about him. I’ll admit, when I first learned Sergey would duel Jack I thought it was random and lame that a Legacy Character would defeat the Big Bad (or his proxy, in this case). Especially when everything seems set-up to have Yuya get revenge for what he did to Yuzu, standard Shonen stuff. Instead, they made the decision of having Sergey BEAT Yuya (admittedly, Barret did most of the damage, through his lame “you can’t play Yugioh” traps, but that’s besides the point) and have Jack be the one to defeat him. But while I’m sure some edgy side of the fanbase would've loved to have seen Awakened Yuya beat his ass, I feel it works because through their duel Jack shows that even terrible people like Sergey can be reached, hence why he rejects Roget’s control and stops grabbing Action Cards (a good use of Action Cards post-Standard, who would’ve thunk?). It also hammers the point that Yuya, despite being the protagonist, isn’t your standard Shonen hero whose role is to defeat the bad guy, but to inspire others and be the one who brings everyone’s strength together.

Anyways, TL:DR evil French bastard fun too root against, but also certified pathetic manfailure.

@arcvmonth

[blueeyeswhitegarden]

Day 6: Understudy Spotlight @arcvmonth

There are a few supporting characters in Arc V that I really like, but I think that Tokumatsu is probably my favorite. I thought that his backstory was interesting and tied in nicely with the world building of the Synchro Dimensions, one of my favorite aspects of the arc as a whole. He had a pretty cool and unique deck as well. His duel with Yuya was great and I loved how it restored his passion for dueling. It was a also good way to show more of Yuya's own growth as a performer with being able to reach out to others during their duel. Tokumatsu works really well as a supporting character for the rest of the arc. He has a fun likable personality and wanted to keep looking out for Yuya. He made sure to tell Yuya about the defeated duelists in the Friendship Cup being put to work underground and was constantly apologizing to Yuzu during their duel knowing that he would be sending her there if he won.

I also like how unconventional Tokumatsu was among the cast. Design wise, he looks like he would be a one-shot character, especially with his outfit, but he stayed around even after they got out of prison. It was kind of refreshing that they would have an adult with a design like that as part of the cast for awhile. Staying in Synchro afterwards also made sense when Tokumatsu's reputation among the Commons and Tops would probably be more helpful in moving towards their new future than being part of the Lancers proper. It was still nice to see him again during the Zarc battle and watching alongside the other Synchro characters during the finale though.

I also liked Masumi. She had a cool personality, a cool deck, a pretty nice design, a good rivalry with Yuzu and both of their duels were great, especially their rematch. She is the prime example of a fan favorite side character. To be honest though, I never had a problem with Masumi not becoming a Lancer. I can completely understand why fans wanted that for all of the reasons I mentioned and I was never really against the idea even at the time. But looking back, it just felt like her role was done after she lost to Yuzu. I can see the appeal of Masumi wanting to save Yuzu, especially when it seemed like she had more respect for her after their rematch and their pairing was gaining more traction too, but compared to Yuya, Gongenzaka and arguably even Serena, I think that they had stronger personal connections to Yuzu than Masumi did. I still used a Gem-Knight deck for awhile prior to the Arc V World update in Duel Links because I was that eager to try out Arc V era cards and archetypes.

I also want to mention Shuzo. He was mainly comedy relief for season one, but he still had some really charming moments. His duel against Yuya was one of my favorite matches in season one. It was such a good way to teach Yuya that it's okay that other people will learn how to Pendulum summon and the lesson itself was terrific too. Instead of being special by default as the only Pendulum user, Yuya needed to become an example as the one who opened the door to Pendulum summoning and using Yusho as an example was so good. It showed that even though he's a goofball himself, Shuzo can be a good and caring teacher to his students. He also wins the prize of being the best father in the franchise. Being so set on going to Academia to save Yuzu and holding onto her school uniform after he heard want happened was so heartbreaking and sweet all at once. I absolutely adore that his love for his daughter is what finally allowed him to regain his memories after Standard is revived into Pendulum. It's such a surprising kind of moment, especially when even Yuya couldn't remember Yuzu after the soft reset, but it was such a heartwarming way to show how strong Shuzo's love for his daughter ultimately was.

[thetoxicgamer]

Seeing StarCraft’s successor in action has unlocked my RTS instincts

When I watch the StarCraft II spiritual successor Stormgate in action, I am immediately transported back to the exhilarating times when I used to get up early on weekends to watch the GSL, South Korea's top-tier professional StarCraft II league. Yes, I am that person. The Stormgate gameplay demo at the PC Gaming Show has already made me interested to try it out for myself because it comes from Frost Giant Studios, a group of former Blizzard employees who have created some of the best RTS games ever. We get to watch a 1v1 multiplayer match between Stormgate’s lead co-op designer Kevin ‘monk’ Dong and StarCraft II icon Dario ‘TLO’ Wünsch. If I wasn’t already in my element, TLO’s presence secured it – his unique strategies and enthusiastic demeanor have cemented him as one of my favorite RTS pros of all time. That’s without even mentioning show host Sean ‘Day’ Plott, himself one of the most prominent faces in StarCraft. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV1Y31_4BS0 Today’s match only gives us a look at one faction, the ‘Human resistance,’ with the obvious comparison point being StarCraft’s Terran race. We see the two main resources in action: Luminite, the golden primary resource that is gathered up by the Humans’ B.O.B. worker units, and Therium, glowing green crystals that are deposited in specific refineries and used for more advanced construction and research. Therium can actually spread and enrich as it’s left unmined, making it feel almost more akin to Command and Conquer Tiberium than the Vespene Gas geysers of StarCraft and showing that the team behind Stormgate isn’t merely chasing past glories but aims to evolve and grow the genre for a modern audience. Stormgate multiplayer gameplay - red and blue armies of the Human resistance clash, explosions going off among the trees. Of course, as exciting as resources are to any strategy fan worth their salt (mines), they’re merely a means to an end, so we get to see what you’ll be using them for. The Human resistance headquarters is the Command Post, and it’s responsible for pumping out those B.O.B workers. You’ll be able to upgrade your HQ to unlock higher tier units as the match progresses, and it also has a cool defensive trick: overcharging nearby B.O.B. units to boost their attack and defense. As someone who’s always been more of a macro-first player, prioritizing my economy and expansions, this seems like a really useful tool to help fend off early rushes. There’s all the other hallmarks you’d expect from a game that’s positioning itself as a spiritual StarCraft sequel: Habitats, built to increase your supply cap; Barracks and Mech Mays to produce units; Biokinetics and Machine Labs that let you research additional upgrades to boost their respective unit types; and defensive Sentry Turrets that can hold off assaults from both ground and air attackers. The units themselves also feel familiar, though there’s some fun new ideas in here. S.C.O.U.T dogs with laser eyes do exactly what they say on the tin – they’re fast-moving and can sense enemies beyond the fog of war. They even have the ability to send out a howling ping that temporarily increases their range further, and will even pierce terrain such as forests that would otherwise block line of sight. Your frontline soldiers are Lancers, blade-wielding units that actually most closely resemble StarCraft’s Protoss Zealots, and Exos, which are the more traditional Marine with a rifle. Their ‘Double Time’ upgrade gives the Exos a movement speed buff akin to StarCraft’s stim, but it’ll wear off if they shoot, though you do get a double-burst with that attack, giving them great rushdown potential. Those units are supported by Medtechs that heal and repair nearby allies, and Evac transport ships that can be used to quickly move your ground units in and out of battle. I absolutely adore watching high-level StarCraft II pros micromanage their armies with Medivac dropships, so I can’t wait to see how the best Stormgate players make use of these options. Finally, we get a look at Stormgate’s Siege Tank equivalent, the Atlas artillery mech, and the Vulcan, a mech with a gatling gun that ramps up in speed as it fires. Atlas bombardments let you lock down a zone, with the ability to upgrade them to leave patches of flame in their wake, although their explosives won’t discriminate between your units and the enemies, so you’ll have to be careful. The Vulcan’s devastating gatling pierces through units, making it a perfect counter to any more swarm-based enemy compositions. It also has a jump jets upgrade that lets it reposition with ease, and will also burn away forested sections of the map in the process. While we don’t get to see the demonic ‘Infernal Host’ faction in action today, I’d imagine the Vulcan will prove invaluable against their hordes. Frost Giant says that limited closed testing for Stormgate is set to begin in July 2023 – you can head to the Stormgate website to sign up for a chance to join in. Co-operative game modes are set to enter the testing period later this year, and you can wishlist Stormgate on Steam to keep up to date with it in the meantime. For now, we’ve got plenty more of the best space games for that intergalactic sense of adventure, while those of you who feel a little overwhelmed by the real-time approach will find plenty to love among the best turn-based strategy games you can play in 2023. Read the full article

[sage-nebula]

Thinking about all the clues in canon that Susie is an orphan who, before the game started, never had any friends or anyone who really cared about her (with their care for her being known to her), such as:

— At the beginning of Chapter 2, Ralsei reveals that he has set up rooms for Susie and Kris in his castle, so that the Dark World can be like “a second home” to them. When Susie sees her room, she spends a moment marveling about how she has her own room and awkwardly asks Ralsei how long he spent setting it up for her. After that, she’s overjoyed about how cool it is, bragging about it to both Kris and Lancer. While it could be that she just likes the room, the emphasis she puts on it being her own room makes it seem like this might be the first time she’s ever had a room to herself. Which, to be fair, Kris shared their room with Asriel as well, but the room Kris shared with Asriel was still their room, at least on one side of it. If Susie is from a group home, it could be that she never even had that much to herself.

— Susie seems to care greatly for Toriel, but in Chapter 1 also seems a bit jealous of Kris for being Toriel’s child. In Chapter 1, after Susie threatens Kris about biting their face off, she stops and says, “Nah. Kris, you have a good mother. It’d be a shame to make her bury her child.” If you try to skip school instead of going to the closet after that, Susie stops Kris by saying, “If you skip school, your mother will have a heart attack.” In both cases, Susie is expressing care for Toriel’s emotional well-being; however much Susie might not care for others, she does care about Toriel enough to not want to stress her out. Keeping in mind that all of this happens before the first Dark World trip, it can’t be explained away by Susie’s character development like Susie’s eagerness to bake a pie with Toriel (and otherwise adherence and respect that she shows for Toriel) in Chapter 2 can.

But going along with that, when you follow Susie to the closet in Chapter 1, Susie mocks Kris by saying, “Not used to walking without someone holding your hand? Come on, freak.” Given the respect and care Susie has already shown for Toriel, it’s clear that her mocking of Kris here is not because Kris should be ashamed for holding Toriel’s hand; rather, it could be jealousy that Susie doesn’t have someone to do that for her, and perhaps never did. It’s easier to call Kris a freak for having a loving mother who holds their hand than it is to admit that she wishes she had the same.

As a final note on the Chapter 2 interactions, Susie is surprised that Toriel knows her name and remembers her. This, in addition to her eagerness to help out with the pie, her laughing at Toriel’s jokes, etc, shows that Susie has a fondness for Toriel, who is the most motherly character in the series. Considering that Toriel acts kind and motherly toward Susie, the idea that Susie might not have never had a mother (+ people to care about her) suggests that her fondness for Toriel (+ jealousy of Kris) contributes to how quickly she latches onto / how much she cares about Toriel.

— Susie eats chalk, and while this could be a “haha monster snack” joke, not only do we not see other monsters eating chalk (in fact, Noelle thinks Kris is lying to her if you choose to tell Noelle this about Susie at the end of Chapter 1), but eating chalk can be a sign of a nutrient deficiency. Specifically, craving chalk can be a result of an iron deficiency. If Susie is an orphan who hasn’t had parents to take care of her, then she could have an unbalanced / nutritionally deficient diet, and thus she does things like eat chalk in an effort to make up for it. (Her jeans are also ripped up, and while distressed jeans are cool, it’s also possible those are the only pants she has.)

— While the other kids in Alphys’ class openly detest Susie (e.g. laughing at Kris for being paired with her, warning Kris about possible death at Susie’s hands, refusing to hang out with Kris if Kris is hanging out with Susie, etc), Monster Kid tells a story to Kris in Chapter 1 that suggests that, at one time, Susie might have wanted to be friends with them. Specifically, if you talk to Monster Kid at the end of Chapter 1, Monster Kid tells Kris about a time when the kids from Alphys’ class (sans Kris) were playing kickball in the street. MK says that Susie was “standing in a corner” staring at them, but that when the ball did get kicked over to her, she froze before kicking it so hard that it hit Undyne’s car. Monster Kid doesn’t say what Susie did after that (only that Alphys came out and kicked all their asses at the game), but does go on to insult Susie some more, and notes that Kris looks increasingly annoyed at the insults. Regardless, the thing to take away from this story here is that Susie was watching all the other kids play, and froze when the ball came to her. She kicked it . . . and it hit Undyne’s car. Monster Kid’s retelling of the story suggests that they and the other kids thought that Susie did that on purpose, but my interpretation (knowing Susie as I do now, and also knowing what it’s like to watch other kids play while not feeling invited to play yourself) suggests that it was probably an accident. Susie wanted to play and be included, but accidentally kicked the ball into the car, and was thought of as a freak and bully after despite her actual intentions.

— To that end, at the start of Chapter 1 Susie is pretty blatantly of the opinion that everyone hates her and wants her to get kicked out of school. She flat out says as much to Kris in front of the lockers at the start of the chapter. (“Everyone wants it. Everyone’s waiting for it.”) It’s not only the other students, either; Alphys is afraid of Susie and uses any opportunity she can to get Susie out of class, which would explain why Susie doesn’t hold nearly the same care or respect for her that she does for Toriel, someone who actually did care about and treat Susie with kindness.

— Susie expresses shock when Lancer wants to be like her / wants to be her friend, and in turn, latches onto him with fierce loyalty that is only momentarily shaken when she thinks he’s betrayed her (and she even reasons that with, “why would anyone want to be my friend?”). That line, suggesting that she feels stupid for thinking Lancer would want to be her friend, points to a friendless background. But her fierce loyalty to anyone who shows her even a bit of kindness also shows just how incredibly lonely she is. In fact, if we think about it, the people who Susie latches onto are those who have shown her some big act of kindness before:

Noelle: Lent Susie the candy cane pencil and smiled at her. Considering how the other kids in Alphys’ class treat Susie, the simple act of lending a pencil with a smile probably seemed like a huge act of kindness to her.

Toriel: Acts motherly toward Susie, as she does with all her students. Might not be special treatment in the grand scheme, but it’s special to Susie who typically doesn’t get that treatment from others.

Lancer: Said that he wanted to be like Susie, that he found Susie cool, wanted monogrammed track jackets with her, etc. Actually wanted to be Susie’s friend and appreciated her.

Kris: Defended Susie from the King’s attack. Note that although Susie was working with Kris before this, she wasn’t to the level of calling Kris her friend before Kris defended Susie. Also note that this is not an action that we, the player, make Kris do; Kris does it on their own regardless of the choices the player makes.

Ralsei: Healed Susie’s injured leg after Susie fell from the trash heap in Chapter 2. Granted, Susie was being nice to Ralsei before that and seemed to consider him a friend (enough), but it was only after Ralsei went out of his way to heal Susie’s injury and offered to teach her healing magic that she yoinked him off to spend time alone with him in the city and wanted to bust out of prison to find him when she thought he was being tortured in Queen’s Castle. Ralsei showed Susie some dedicated kindness, Susie latched on for life.

The fact that it takes on gesture of care on someone else’s part for Susie to be willing to kill for a person suggests that not only has Susie not had friends before, but perhaps that her feelings of loneliness were mixed with rejection to the point where she latches on fiercely to these people who care for her and doesn’t let them go.

— In addition to all this, although Susie latches on strongly, she also seems to be worried about losing those connections, too. When Lancer seemingly betrayed her, she said “why would anyone want to be friends with me?” When they returned from the Dark World, Susie hesitantly asks Kris if they’ll still be friends even if it turns out the Dark World was just a dream (well, she doesn’t finish the thought, but it’s clear that’s what she was about to ask before she fled). In the Snowgrave Route, when Noelle flees Kris at the hospital, Susie assumes Noelle is fleeing because of her and expresses dismay that Noelle is “scared of [her] again.” Susie’s default is that people fear or hate her and will run at the first opportunity despite how she tries to keep them close, which again speaks to a history of loneliness and rejection.

— Susie got banned from Free Ham Sandwich Day. This is a throwaway joke line, but if you consider that Susie might be an orphan with food insecurity, it could be less that she was just stuffing her face to be a pig and more that she was eating as much as she could because she didn’t know when she’d be able to eat again. Considering that she also eats things like chalk, candy cane pencils, apple-scented shampoo, and moss . . . well, the idea that Susie is food insecure doesn’t seem too far-fetched. (Kris also eats moss if the player makes them, yes, but the player has to choose that. Susie just does it on her own.)

Anyway, none of this is Conclusive Evidence, of course, but I think there’s a lot to suggest that Susie could very well be an orphan possibly living in a group home, and that she’s never really had the love of family or friends before the game started. Her aggression is defensive aggression more than anything else and it’s pretty clear that she just wants to be loved and give love in return. Susie’s fantastic and I can’t wait to see what more we learn about her as the game goes on.

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom, season 3 episodes 3-6 thoughts!

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-johnny was actually pretty civil with danny and left when he asked! thats nice. also, SKULKER?? HAD A FRAMED PICTURE OF EMBER?? oooo fuck wait had they established they were a Thing Before?? I dont think so. thats weird. its like that country boy/goth girl meme lmfao. I think i am going to choose to ignore this new info and pretend I didnt hear it. 100% unrelated to the jazz/ember fanart I already drew and posted....😳

-LADIES NIGHT EPISODE THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT. wish it didnt really center around the guys or them being pissed at them, but. willing to bet this was written by men lol

-THEY ERASED ALL THE MEN??? meanwhile, jack and danny are fishing at. silent hill or something. im glad jack is trying to read a parenting book and making an Attempt. (theyre at lake erie, but, they made it actually eerie...thats fun)

-the girls alt outfits...cute. EMBER MADE A NEW SONG TOO!!! kinda. jazz being one of the backup singers and being AWFUL. NOOOO

-'how are we going to get kitty to blow a kiss?' 'she'll have to think there are still some males in town!' ...i dont know how to break it to you, but I dont know that a 100% het girl would wish for all men to Begone. I think. I mean im not a het or a girl so I dont really know for sure. she Is probably Bi tho. esp having the other ladies in town chanting NO MEN!!! excitedly............(then again, the kiss is to get Rid of men, so, she probably would have blown it at the ladies only if they were actively trying to attack/stop them, so...I MEAN. THE DRESSING LIKE DANNY BIT WAS SO EXTRA)

-I feel like an all female cast ep couldve been way way way way cooler than that was. like. why was it still somehow all about Men. ...anyway. (where was valerie...)

-next ep opens with the observants, and, way way more of them than I expected...existed? I mean I guess them being a council/jury of some kind is what I expected from their first appearance (bc at that time they were basically TELLING clockwork to kill danny, not asking,, so I figured they had SOME kind of authority) but. there were so many. anyway, here goes vlad! letting his own hubris go brrrr. releasing a weather ghost for political gain! #justvladthings

-okay say what you will about him (he IS an asshole) but having an umbrella with his own face on it and more prepared to share is SUPER FUNNY. and him being fanned by huge wads of money by his bodyguards. SO ineffective but so Dramatic. He UNDERSTANDS that if youre rich you need to be. you know. obnoxious and kinda eccentric about it! fuckign hate when rich people are boring about it. I would trust vlad with nothing except to not be a boring rich asshole who wears...fucking khaki or some shit. man knows his Presentation Skills. and that 'V' chair in his mayoral office. is that fucking embroidered?

-maddie get your MAN PLEEEEASSSE. IM SO EMBARRASSED FOR HER. the way jack stays simping for this man. in FRONT OF HIS WIFE!!!! ...my god its like a love triangle. jack clearly loves vlad, who loves maddie, who loves jack. jack fenton is at the very least bi, right................. this is an OBSESSION . 'THE V MAN COMETH'???? i...my god. (also, on a serious note, to have a friend THIS SUPPORTIVE...and still be SUCH A DICK TO HIM (TRYING TO KILL HIM AND STEAL HIS WIFE??) NOT COOL VLAD. JACK IS YOUR 1 AND /ONLY/ HYPE MAN. if someone loved and supported me THIS HARD...LIKE. CMON DUDE.

-STOMP the fucking GAS, JACK

-this would make a great shirt design, looks like a metal band design! we love The Maelstrom

-oh, so vlad did in fact get a mansion in amity park. and its purple! good color choice! not as flashy as a CASTLE or MURDER CABIN, but still pretty eccentric, which I appreciate.

-...vlad knows the difference between picasso and da vinci? in the ep last post where we were watching him fail at conquering every historical time ever he didnt seem to know history well enough to like. be effective...was vlad taking art history at college?? (was he an art MAJOR??? we never DID KNOW WHAT HE WENT TO SCHOOL FOR. I kinda assumed business because in the masters of time ep he was still rich without ghost powers so he had to have..known something about business or something, right...but also, art and or theater FITS HIS PERSONALITY. possibly also something science-y, I guess, but I always felt like he got roped into that, esp how pessimistic he was about the ghost portal in the flashbacks to college, like, i felt like he was just there for maddie and was uninterested/un-invested at the time...)

-THIS GHOST JUST ELECTROCUTED MADDIE (THE CAT) BITCH!! THATS MY FAVORITE MADDIE!!! vlad going after vortex and being ~shocked~ .....WHEN. WHEN WILL YOU LEARN. THAT YOUR ACTIONS. HAVE CONSEQUENCES!!!

-the way this random man with a camera sees the mayor laying in an alley covered in TRASH AND DECIDES TO TAKE A PICTURE HAHAH

*snap* this ones going in my cringe compilation!

-vlad 'if we're going to defeat vortex, we're going to have to do it together!' *immediately dips after dropping danny off in front of vortex* JKASDFHKJHJKN

-DANNY CAN DUPLICATE!!! ...he couldnt even attack with it, but he DID IT!!! INTO (4) OF HIMSELF!!! SO PROUD!!!!!!!!!!

-'THE ROLLER COASTER EMOTIONS OF A TEENAGER THREATEN MY PLANS!' ...0 self awareness of his own dramatic moodiness. incredible, how dumb this man is. its very close to circling around to endearing, if he was less of an asshole. at least its very very funny to see danny shooting him with tiny lightning bolts anytime he's even slightly irritated! vlad you should be nice to danny anyway. this is what you GET

-...making sandwiches and ice cream and playing video games with your nephew is a totally normal thing. WHY is vlad acting like this is the end of the world. if you were a GOOD UNCLE YOU WOULD ALREADY BE DOING THESE THINGS!!! bitch I make my nephew food all the time and dont forget what he does and doesnt like. if u didnt know danny didnt want tomatoes, thats on u. if u, a grown adult, are gonna piss of the 14 yr old by not letting him win, u deserve to have to pay for the arcade machines he ruins because he now has uncontrollable storm powers because YOU THREW HIM INTO A FIGHT WITH THE STORM GHOST. fuck u vlad. paypal me $400,000 while ur at it tho. (also, gamer vlad confirmed)

-VLAD CAN COOK THOUGH???! I assumed he had...people working for him that did that. I mean. billionaires usually dont do that. then again, we've only seen those vultures working for him (and I guess the dairy king was AT his old mansion, but it was never really clarified if he worked there...I think he probably just Hung Out and they Enjoyed Cheeses Together. thats what I think, I dont think a KING would be working for anyone and also the dairy king was nice <3) but then again he would be a private person and we cant have anyone accidentally finding Ghostly Things, so...still, that's hilarious. pour one out for that really cute banana split that got ruined 2 seconds later

-vlad just fucking picking danny up and THROWING HIM AT VORTEX TWICE WITHIN LIKE A MINUTE. JUST ABSOLUTELY LAUNCHING HIM. BITCH THATS MY SON BE CAREFUL!!! HES GOT ORGANS AND THINGS!!!!

-danny seeing those animal commercials and feeling sad is the biggest 2000s throwback so far. i legitimately had to change the channel or walk out of the room when those came on bc id CRY AND BE SAD ABOUT THEM FOR DAYS AFTER. fuck those commercials and fuck that IN THE ARMMMS OF AN ANGELLLL song 😭

-'vlads ego almost got the town destroyed!' yes danny thats the entire episode. the entire series anytime vlad shows up honestly. this episode was just him being really embarrassing the entire time, and, me laughing about it. 10/10 would laugh at him again

-NEXT EP WE HAVE A SHAPESHIFTING GHOST?? I've said it before but shapeshifting is the power I would want when asked those 'what superpower do you want' questions...its the Best power! this guy looks like a homestuck character. ive never read homestuck but thats the vibe

-I love every time we see tuckers family, they are by far the most functional family. and dash has a lil chihuahua!!! named pookie!!! i am crying (I've had 3 chihuahuas, so I am very biased, but...) AND HE WATCHES THE ROMANCE CHANNEL WITH POOKIE. POOKIE I WILL DIE FOR YOU YOU SWEET LITTLE BABY.

-danny can lift a bus! I shouldn't be surprised, but i am proud of my son. hes got lil kid fans. i am going to cry about this

-JAZZ KEEPS A SCRAPBOOK WITH DANNY'S LIL HEROICS AND NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS!!! we've actually seen it on her floor before, but I didnt realize it was a scrapbook!! thats sooo cute.

-...and danny has to stand there listening to his parents saying danny phantom sucks and is a 'filthy ghost' and calling him egotistical...i am once again stealing their kids!

-THIS GHOST RIPPING JAZZ'S SCRAPBOOK!!! ILL KILL YOU. SHE WORKED HARD ON THAT!!! BITCH

-yes, maddie, the one with red eyes is For Sure Actually Your Son. ignore the, red eyes... (CLEARLY she hasnt watched the other 2 eps where danny has been evil, she doesnt know red eyes= evil!!!)

-'billy fenton'.......................

-danny being stuck as phantom in his own house, no way out is a fucking NIGHTMARE. his parents pointing giant weapons against him and SHOOTING AT HIM. THIS IS A HORROR MOVIE.

-NINE INCH NAILS POSTER.

-this is the most screenshot of all time

-amorpho turning into mr. lancer because hes 'someone no one will want to be around' BUT HES WRONG, I WOULD BEFRIEND AND HANG OUT WITH MR LANCER SO FAST.

-tucker dressing as danny, now I have the full Tucker set of him being sam and also being danny. also saying 'the ghost...uh...RIPPED MY FACE OFF.' and then running. SMOOTH. NOT AT ALL CONCERNING TO ANY PARENTS.

-sam accepts the toast from jack. and then 2 seconds later is like 'why am i eating this.' THIS SHOWS HUMOR IS SO UNEXPECTED SOMETIMES ITS REALLY GOOD. and then the scene after, mr lancer running into his ghost doppelganger and being like 'YOURE GORGOUS' THEN FAINTING. I AM CRYING. AND DASH FAINTING TOO.

-sam disguising herself as danny again to help tucker run from the fentons. but leaving him shirtless in the streets. incredible. 'plEASE DOnt NOTice MY FACELessNESS I MUST LIVE IN EXILE' this episode is destroying me the humor in this show is exactly my brand of corny and cheesy

-the impromtu story made up by danny and amorpho to explain stuff to the fentons. my god they are both such bad liars. but amorpho is a good egg. wish danny wouldnt have said he didnt wanna see him in town again!! I want him to be reoccurring. not that thats gonna matter since I'm almost done with the series, but the idea of this being the Only Time We See him is :(

-NEXT EP SAYS STARRING MARK HAMILL??????!!! hello ! mr . joker....mr. star wars.... I feel like I should be. idk. taking off a hat im not wearing in respect. I shouldnt be surprised tho bc hes in a lot of cartoons as a very good voice actor, and dp has already had a lot of talented ones so I've been looking out for ones I might know, but....mr. hamill....

-sam has her own greenhouse, names all the plants, and says thank you to them (in the languages from where the plants are from) whenever she harvests from them. thats SO cute. and her lil gothy lunch box...

-and danny's lil red fuzzy lined jacket!!! ive said it before but every time the characters get alt outfits im like :D

-danny has ice powers now!!! THATS WHAT FROSTBITE MEANT. HE KNEW SOMEHOW WAY BACK THEN

-THIS SHOW NEVER LETS YOU FORGET VLAD IS A BILLIONAIRE, HUH.

-danny's lil 'holy hibiscus!' first off the 50s batman swearing is hilarious. 2nd. my username is from the flower sanchoyo hibiscus, so, shoutout to ME this ep. hi :)

-EURGH UNDERGROWTH MAKING EVERYONE PLANT ZOMBIES. HIVEMIND PLOTS SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF ME. and this dude made the city SO overtaken so quickly like how long was danny asleep?? oh god

-evil fucked up sam! now the whole trio has gone evil at some point! the voice actress did a really, really good job with making her sound like a zombie...

-frostbite's paws are so so so big compared to danny. oh my god. i want to hug the snow dog...

-the far frozen has an advanced medical stuff!!! very cool. very smart snow dogs

-im so glad danny has a friendly ghost snow dad to explain this new power and teach him!!! this is so sweet. DANNY'S GHOST SENSE WAS A PART OF HIS ICE POWER?? OOOH. COOL. we love a training montage!!!

-danny saying if he cant defeat overgrowth, that he'd want to stay with frostbite...oh my god...do you think this is the first real supportive adult figure in his life (I am NOT counting his parents because they threaten him on the daily even if they dont realize it.) I mean mr lancer is a Teacher, but he was also nice but this is different, but this is a GHOST WHO IS WILLING TO HELP HIM with his powers and also will help him when hes injured and is so so nice and comparatively so much more mature than 90% of the adults in this show!!!! god. dad frostbite is my everything.

-the framing and lighting this episode, and all the angles...they went all OUT and it looks really really good. this is my nightmare scenario, tho. like, FUCK zombies and dead city zones and hivemind shit. and using the humans as 'nutrients for the children' i am going to THROW UP.

-MALEFICENT VIBES WITH THE HORNS AND GREEN EYES! this costume kicks so much ass. sam is now mark hamills daughter, I guess.

-danny's ice powers making his eyes blue!!! thats neat. and him going for the roots underground was SO SMART. i will not stand for danny ever thinking hes stupid, hes SO smart.

almost done with the show... :"( thats a sad thought!!!

[ecto-american]

If Found Please Return to Danny Phantom

Phic Phight Oneshot for @imperfection-at-itsfinest: When Jack manages to get his hands on Danny Phantom's ghost hunting logbook, an investigation reveals some information about ghosts and the infamous specter himself that a scientific study would never cover.

Read on FFN and AO3

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It would be wrong of him to read it. 

Jack kept staring at the book in his hands. It resembled a diary, the front design being colorless but a pressed design. The moon with stars, with no words, and the diary itself felt unusually thin. There was no lock, as if it was almost inviting him to just read it. Jack had, in fact, already opened to the first page, and the first words greeted him. In a standard font read: If Found, Please Return to: and the name scrawled, in surprisingly tidy handwriting, was the name Danny Phantom.

What an absolute find. It was pure dumb luck. He had seen Phantom drop it, but Jack had went looking for it in hopes that the ghost teen had dropped one of the stolen Fenton gadgets. Only to recover...this book that he had taken home and into the privacy of his lab for study.

The idea of Phantom keeping a diary was kinda funny. He never struck Jack as the type to write down his deepest darkest secrets or teenage embarrassments in a book. That would imply that the ghost had some kind of emotions. They didn’t. They were blobs of ectoplasmic energy.

So it should be okay for him to read, right? Why was he so hesitant? Well...it was an invasion of privacy. But it was fine. Phantom dropped it in the park. Phantom was a menace to society. There was likely evidence in this journal that could explain all of the ghost boy’s terrible deeds, that could prove that he truly was evil. This diary could change everything.

...Jack had children though, and he knew both were avidly creative. Scrapbooking, drawing, painting, writing. They were stress outlets for his girls, and he wouldn’t ever dare dream of invading their privacy like that. So he couldn’t. He shouldn’t. Phantom deserved privacy, right?

“Jack? Are you coming to dinner?” Maddie’s voice snapped him from his thought process. She hadn’t made a noise as she came down the stairs. But Maddie was a much better stealth hunter than him.

“Yes, yes! Sorry, I was distracted,” Jack apologized. He set the book down on the table. Maddie rose an eyebrow at him.

“Did you get a new ectobiology book?” she asked. His eyes glanced to the book, and he shook his head no. Maddie came over to him, studying the book cover. Of course, it didn’t resemble any of the scientific texts that they owned. 

“I don’t know how to explain it…” Jack said slowly. He held it out to her. Maddie accepted it.

“This looks like it belongs to the kids,” she stated. She opened the first page, and Jack saw her eyes widen. Her breath hitched, and she looked up to him “Jack...where did you...get this?”

“He dropped it during a fight,” he replied. “I thought it was Fenton tech, but…”

Her eyes sparkled, and she shut the book. A wide grin had appeared, and she threw her arms around her husband.

“Oh Jack! This could teach us so much! If this really is a journal or some kind of diary, then he may have recorded motivations! Thoughts! We can really get into how Phantom thinks and a raw, honest, firsthand account from Phantom himself! This changes everything!”

She was right. She was absolutely right, and he hugged her back. They were scientists first and foremost, and this journal could fill in so many missing blanks about ghosts. It was a starting off point. Jack’s mind raced with all the things they could possibly learn. Just from a simple peek of the book. That was worth more than the invasion of privacy of a ghost that caused so much havoc, destruction and pain. 

“We should look at it right now!” he exclaimed. Maddie pulled away with a small frown.

“After dinner,” she reminded him. “I finally got everybody corralled upstairs for a family dinner. It’s nearly impossible to get either of the girls at the same time.”

“Oh, right!” Jack nearly slapped his forehead. Yes, they were scientists first and foremost, but before even that, they were Mom and Dad. “First thing after dinner.”

“First thing after dinner,” she agreed with a smile. 

Upstairs, he saw that Jazz was already serving herself. Chicken, mashed potatoes and peas. His youngest was pouring iced tea into glasses for everybody. 

“Hey Ghost-kateers!” Jack greeted cheerfully with a grin. Both kids groaned in embarrassment. Perfect. 

“Daaad!” his youngest complained, a whine hitching as she put the pitcher of ice tea back. “I told you, if I’m going to be some kind of ye olde soldier type, I wanna be a knight, like at the renaissance fair.” 

“Ah, but if you’re a ghost-kateer, you can get an anti-ghost musket!” Jack teased. As he walked past her to get his own food, he playfully ruffled her pixie-cut hair. She waved his hand away. 

“But as a ghost knight, I can get a cool sword!” she protested. Jack shook his head in fake disappointment. 

“Never bring to a ghost sword to a ghost musket fight, baby boo,” her dad replied.

“Can’t shoot what you can’t see!” she shot back with a grin. Jack had to hand it to her, and he just chuckled. 

“Can we please have a ghost free dinner?” Jazz scowled. 

“Yes, yes, let’s save ghosts for after dinner,” Maddie agreed. Jazz shot her a grateful look, and Jack focused on getting his serving of dinner from the stove. His youngest pushed her sleeves up, exhaling. Jack stole a look at her and frowned. She had some sweat collected on her forehead.

“Honey if you're hot, you can just take your sweatshirt off,” he told her. She shook her head no.

“No, I'm fine,” she insisted. Jack was skeptical.

“You sure?” he asked. 

“Mhm!” 

Jack shrugged a bit. She was always insisting on wearing a hoodie, no matter the weather. If she got hot enough, she’d take it off. No need to force it. He got his food and took his seat.

“How's school going?” Maddie questioned. Jazz lit up a bit, and her sister flinched. She raised a suspicious eyebrow at her youngest.

“I managed to get a B on my chemistry test,” the youngest spoke up with a forced smile.

“That’s excellent!” Maddie’s demeanor shifted as she smiled warmly. “Keep it up!” 

“Yeah!” The youngest seemed to visibly relax. “Sam’s been helping me study.”

“That’s good, I always studied better when V-man or your mom helped me,” Jack nodded at her as he cut up his chicken. 

“Oh it’s true, I used to help your father study for all of our shared classes,” Maddie confirmed. “Otherwise he’d get so distracted.”

“Yeah, Sam just explains it super well,” their daughter agreed. “Tucker’s been going over math with me a bit, which helps some.”

“Well if you need a tutor, just let us know, and we’ll help you arrange one,” Maddie smiled. “What about you, Jazz?”

“Pretty good,” she replied. “Mr. Lancer asked if I wanted to be his TA this summer, which I really do. It’ll look good on a college application, and I might even get paid!”

“Have you been narrowing down where you might wanna go?” Jack asked. Jazz eagerly nodded.

“Yeah! Oxford is my number one choice, but I also would love to go to Yale or Stanford. I’ve been talking with the college counselor about what else might look good on an application for them that I can do over the summer. I wrote them down in my planner notebook earlier-”

“Hey, that kinda reminds me,” her sister interrupted. “Have you guys seen one of my notebooks? I think I lost it,” she asked them. Jack stared at her. The reminder of the notebook he actually had found. Maddie seemed unbothered by the question. This wasn’t unusual, for the parents to have to play “where’s my stuff?” with the kids. 

“What notebook?” Jazz asked hesitantly. 

“My important one,” came the reply. Jazz frowned lightly. 

“Sorry, princess, haven’t seen any notebooks laying around,” Jack replied. He saw the briefest of a cringe cross his youngest’s features. “Did you leave it at school?” Her shoulders slumped.

“I don’t think so?” she said hesitantly. “I’ll have to check tomorrow. I was so sure I had it earlier…” Her voice trailed off before she forced a smile. “If you see it, let me know!” She picked up a forkful of chicken, only to freeze. The clattering made Jack glance up curiously as she was turning her attention to Maddie. “Can I be excused? I have some homework to get done.” 

Maddie let out a soft sigh. So much for family dinner.

“Of course, just make sure you come back down before you go to bed to get your chores done,” Maddie nodded at her. The young Fenton snapped to her feet with a thanks, fully abandoning her dinner as she went to the stairs. Jazz stared after her sister, craning her neck to track her movements before hurriedly shoveling more mashed potatoes in her mouth.

“Uh, I’m not that hungry, and I totally forgot to do this online assignment,” Jazz spoke, standing up, taking hers and her sister’s plate. She was already walking away before either parent could truly give permission. “I’ll put our plates up and clean up in a bit!”

“A-alright?” Jack hesitated, watching his other child put the plates on the counter before rushing up as well. Another child down. They seemed to grow up so fast. 

“Least they’re doing homework,” Maddie sighed lightly, shaking her head before taking a drink of her tea. “Oh well. Might as well take their lead and eat in the lab?” 

“Please,” Jack agreed. He stood up, taking his plate. “I’m dying to see what Phantom has to say.”

January 10

Skulker: 1; captured

Ectopuss: 1; captured

Box Ghost: 8; captured

Ember: Fought; got away

Fenton Thermos: half-full

Fenton Fisher: untangled

January 11

Vultures: 1; got away

Cujo: 1; played fetch and he went back to the GZ

Fenton Thermos: Full

Ghost Bazooka: overheated and doesn’t shoot anymore, take apart and fix it

January 12

Skulker: 2; got away

Box Ghost: 3; captured

Sidney: 2; got away

Fenton Fisher: tangled, untangle asap

January 13

Skulker: 1; captured

Box Ghost: 4; got away

Fenton Thermos: damaged, won’t suck up ghosts

I met a new ghost today named Desiree. She got away, but it allowed me to discover a new ghost power. Ghost ray.

Maddie furrowed her brow as she studied the words. She stood at the table, her dinner half-forgotten as she thought on the words.

“It sounds like a record,” Jack mused, and he ate another spoonful of peas. Maddie nodded in agreement.

“I think we found Phantom’s logbook,” she agreed. “I’m assuming these are the ghosts he’s fought. And he seems to be recording his powers too. This is huge, we can match up what we know about his powers and what he’s claiming.”

“And he’s recording the status of our equipment.” Jack frowned. “Why would he care?”

“Yeah, he made note that he was going to fix the Fenton Bazooka too,” Maddie pointed out. The scientist flipped through the pages, only to stop at a page, staring curiously. Maddie laid the journal on the table, pressing the spine so that the pages stayed open. She read the page aloud to Jack.

December 19

I hate my life. I hate this existence. I look in the mirror and wonder why it has to be this way. Why am I the one cursed to be this freak? Why is everything about me and my body wrong? For once, I wish something about me was normal, that somebody about me could be right. If Desiree wasn’t such an unreliable asshole with wishes, I’d give everything I have to wish that life could, for once, allow me to be a normal teenage boy. 

Jack listened to her in a stumped silence. This couldn’t have been a pre-death thought process of a moody teenager. It was written too recently, and the words hit a sorrowful chord to him. He didn’t intend to, but he quickly began to feel sorry for Phantom. He was very young. It couldn’t have been easy to lose everything at that age. His daughter was his age. Jack cleared his throat.

“It’s not just a log then?” Jack questioned. Maddie shook her head, flipping the pages back.

“No, I think it’s a mix. There’s still records of ghosts and FentonWorks equipment,” she replied. Using a leg, she pulled a wheeled chair to her to sit in. She leaned back, and she pulled the journal to her. After a moment of flipping through and scanning pages, she settled on a page about a third of the way through. “It seems like this is when he began to record things other than just ghosts.”

“What’s it say?” Jack wondered. Maddie read aloud the next few entries as Jack silently continued to eat. 

April 4

I only fought this shitty panther today, and he still got away. I’m such a fucking idiot. I can’t believe he got away. I was too slow. All I do is fuck up. There’s ghostly activity happening around the school, and I just can’t figure it out. I feel like I can’t stop them anymore. I don’t know what’s going on, why I suddenly suck so much. I honestly probably just always sucked, and now it’s starting to hit me. [scribbles] and [scribbles] were trying to make me feel better, but I fucked up. It was only one ghost today, and I couldn’t catch them. It destroyed an entire store, and it’s my fault.

April 8

No ghosts today, surprisingly. But [scribbles] has been acting weird lately. The other day she poked and prodded me at dinner. No clue what that’s about. She also tried to give me this speech that I can talk to her about anything, and that she’d love me no matter what. That makes me think she found my binder. I’m honestly kinda freaking out. I knew I shouldn’t have left it out like that. She’s such a nosy know it all.

“Phantom must keep more records than just this,” Maddie lightly mused. “He has an entire binder full of information that somebody discovered.”

“Maybe on other ghosts?” Jack theorized. “He’s recording his fights, he must be also recording information about them.” Maddie’s eyes lit up.

“That makes so much sense,” she agreed. “He probably keeps so many kinds of things written down and logged. I wonder where he’s keeping it? Obviously paper, which is a bit odd. I figured a teenager would move to the digital age…” Maddie paused.

“Maybe he’s older than we think he is?” Jack suggested. “He could have died fifty years ago, and just be more comfortable with writing things down.”

“Oh, that’s true,” Maddie mused. She put down the notebook to take a long sip of her drink. Jack picked it up to observe the page she read.

“Phantom has neat handwriting,” he noted. “He’s not fighting ghosts when he writes these.” Jack’s eyes scanned the words. “...I wonder who he’s scribbled out.”

“Allies?” Maddie shrugged. “He probably went back and blacked out some of the names. Privacy. Especially if this isn’t the first time he’s lost this.”

It made the most logical sense. Jack skipped the purely log entries to one that had more written, and he read it aloud to his wife.

April 10

She was feeding on us. Spectra, the Casper High “psychologist” was feeding on emotions, like some kind of emotional vampire but she’s a ghost. It’s so scary. I saw her do it. She asked [scribbles] and [scribbles] about their lives. What made them unhappy, and why. And when they left, I saw her absorb? I guess how I’d describe it? She absorbed the energy into her skin and it just seemed to instantly revive her, and it made her happy. When she did it to me, I could just look in her eyes and know that she enjoyed every minute of my misery. I managed to stop her, with [scribbles] helping me. It was weird. She didn’t seem afraid of me. I don’t know why. 

Spectra: 2; captured

“Ghosts can feed off of energy!” Maddie exclaimed. “Human energy! We always suspected it, but this is confirming something!” Jack glanced up at her excitedly. It was the first real, true ghostly discovery that Phantom was revealing to them. 

April 13

All I do is fuck up lately. Because of me, this ghost dog just absolutely has been causing havoc on this girl’s life. She blames me. And I don’t blame her. I ruined her entire life. She lost her house because of me. I didn’t mean to. I tried to stop the dog, but he just won’t respond to anything I say. I can’t capture him. I’ve been trying. I’ve been just calling the dog Cujo. After the Stephen King book, because damn is this dog giving me one fucking nightmare of a time.

Cujo: 3, got away

April 16

[scribbles] kissed me. It was to force me to change back, and it worked, but she kissed me. It was great. She smelled like lavender. I don’t think my heart’s ever beaten so fast. Afterwards she clarified to me that it was just a fake-out make-out. It didn’t feel like it. I don’t want it to be. But she’s my best friend, and I can’t lose her. So I agreed, and when I came home I cried. My dad caught me, and I pretended it was just girl problems, even though that excuse made me feel even worse. He got me some ice cream, and we watched Star Trek together. It didn’t really help that much, if I’m being honest. 

Anyway, apparently Cujo’s trained. He knows his commands. [scribbles] thinks it’s because he was a guard dog when he was alive for Axion Labs. For a guard dog, he’s such a playful puppy though, he loves his squeaky toy. And [scribbles] became a hunter specifically to kick my ass. It’s my lucky month. But I deserve it. Will there ever be a day where I actually can do more good than bad?

Skulker: 1; captured

[Scribbles]: 1 Red Huntress

Cujo: 1, got away

“Phantom has a family?” Maddie wondered. She chewed on her food as she thought. Jack shrugged, an odd, unsettled feeling hitting him as he put the book down for a moment. He used his spoon to push around his peas.

“I mean, we all do,” Jack reminded her. “Just...I didn’t think Phantom still talked to his family. After his death. Or did such...non-ghost things with them.” Watching Star Trek with his dad? Jack did that with his own kids all the time. It was his and his youngest daughter’s favorite show to watch together. Jazz typically preferred documentary series, and Maddie was too bothered by scientific inaccuracies to really enjoy science fiction. So it was always “their thing” and knowing that Phantom did it too was...too human. 

“Yeah, I didn’t...really expect him to still be haunting them,” Maddie said. Jack could tell that this was disturbing her a little. 

“But ghosts can retain their memories from life it seems,” Jack spoke up. Maddie stared at him. “The dog remembers commands from his life as a guard dog. What extent, I’m not sure.” Maddie hummed curiously.

Jack picked the book up again, skipping through more boring logs to other words. 

April 29

Ember: 2; captured

Fenton Thermos: full, empty

The past few weeks have been terrible. I have definitely come to the conclusion that I really am developing a crush on [scribbles]. Or maybe I always had one, I dunno. Is this really just an effect from Ember’s supposed spell? Does ghostly mind control really last? I think I always knew that I liked her though. I mean, ever since I told her that [scribbles], she’s been so supportive. She even cut my hair for me, which really pissed my parents off, but they ended up admitting that I looked better with my hair short anyway. Almost like it’s meant to be, huh? Ha. [scribbles] is also one of the only two people who know my deeper secret. She’s been so supportive through that too. She calls me Danny, and every time she refers to me as that, it makes my heart go crazy.

But would she even like me? Would she even wanna be with somebody like me? I don’t think I’d be her type. Some other friends I met at this local support group have complained about the struggles of dating. The stories are depressing, and it makes me worried that while [scribbles] will always love and accept me as a friend, that she’d never be able to love me as a boyfriend. I hate my life.

“Aw, Phantom has a little girlfriend,” Jack half-joked, only for goosebumps to raise and an odd chill run down his spine. He looked to Maddie for her opinion, and her face was scrunched up.

“That’s a bit creepy,” she commented. “He’s pretending to be human.”

“I dunno, Mads,” Jack shrugged. He re-read the ghostly teen’s internal conflicts. “Why would he pretend to be human in a journal that nobody’s meant to read?”

“He has to be sharing it with his allies,” she argued. “Those people he’s been scribbling out. Phantom has to be pretending for them. To keep them around. He even mentioned ghostly mind control.” 

She pushed her mostly-finished plate from herself, motioning for Jack to hand over the journal. He complied, and Maddie flipped through it. She stopped, and she set the journal down on the table once more. Leaning over, she studied the spine. A finger ran along the inner spine, and she frowned.

“Pages are missing,” she noticed. Jack pushed his plate out of the way to lean over as well.

Indeed, the top of the diary revealed that it was meant to be a normal, full diary. Now that Maddie pointed it out, it looked like well over a fourth of the diary had missing pages. Jack squinted, pulling his hood over his eyes. He used his googles to better examine.

“They weren’t ripped out, like in a ghost fight,” Jack told her. He pointed to what remained of a page, a barely noticeable strip. “It was carefully cut out.” Maddie narrowed her eyes to get a better look.

“You’re right,” she mused. “Phantom did this purposefully. Probably to hide stuff from his allies.”

“But why hide some stuff and not others?” Jack wondered aloud. “Clearly this girlfriend figure is an ally, but he can’t be...sharing this with her, right?” Maddie pulled back from the notebook to lean in her chair with a heavy sigh.

“...I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t think he would. But he’s also a ghost, they do weird things.” Jack didn’t know how to reply, and so he continued to read.

May 16

The past few days have been so full of drama. Walker ruined my life. He absolutely ruined it. He set out to make me the most hated person in Amity Park out of pure spite, and he succeeded. I’m public enemy number one. I can never win. For a while now, I had debated telling my parents, because I so desperately want their support, but they were part of the news coverage calling me a disgusting, evil ghost. I ended up crying yesterday. I don’t think they’ll ever truly love me if they knew. I also failed Wulf. Another failure on my plate. I’m just waiting for it to all crash down on me.

Walker: 1; sent to the GZ

Wulf: 1; sent to the GZ

Walker’s goons: at least 14, all captured

Fenton Thermos: overflowingly full

“Oh this is just becoming nonsense,” Maddie complained. “He’s lying. We were there, Jack! We saw him attack us.”

“I know, I know, he did, yeah, he did,” Jack tried to gather his thoughts. “But why would he lie in this? I don’t think anybody was meant to read this?” Jack flipped through the pages. The further he flipped through in, the more he could tell that some sections had more carefully cut out papers than others. Why was Phantom cutting out? What was he hiding? Why was he hiding it?

“He meant for somebody to read this,” Maddie lightly argued. 

“Yeah, it seems like it, but…,” Jack trailed off. He shook his head a bit, flipping back to where they had left off. “I dunno.”

“Hold on a second,” Maddie urged him, standing up. “Let me get something to write with, we should take some notes.”

“We can just use the scanner to make a copy of the journal afterwards, and we can further analyze it afterwards,” Jack suggested. Maddie thought on this, and she nodded, but she still reached for some scrap paper and a pen.

“Good idea, we should probably read through it fully first anyway,” she agreed. “But I still want to jot down some thoughts.”

“Of course, of course,” Jack replied. He knew that’s how she thought and processed information best, and it was always from her notes that he could visualize his own theories properly. He took a drink of tea before he continued reading the next true entry.

May 24

My entire relationship with my other crush (not [scribbles]) was a lie. She was being overshadowed by Kitty the entire time. This was my first real girlfriend, and it was all fake. I had assumed I was so lucky. I found a girl who knew and was okay with both of my biggest secrets. When I got home I ended up just going straight to my room. [scribbles] brought me dinner, but I didn’t feel like eating. Is this what life is going to be for me? I don’t want it to be like this. The only good thing is that [scribbles] doesn’t know either secret alongside our brief relationship.

Least Kitty and Johnny seem happy again. For now at least. I swear, they’re always breaking up and getting back together. 

Kitty: 1; sent back to the GZ

Johnny 13: 1; sent back to the GZ

Shadow: 1; sent back to the GZ

Jack could lightly hear Maddie taking notes on her scrap paper, the pen scratching at the surface. He didn’t comment on it, silently flipping to the next page, and he continued to read. 

August 19

I was forced to really face the reality of how much I fucked up [scribbles] life. I hate it. I’d do anything to take it back. It makes me wonder if I should just retire. Am I even really doing anything to help? Am I just a nuisance? Everybody thinks that. 

Rationally I know I can’t. I’m the only one who can properly deal with the ghosts, who has the power and abilities to fight back without getting killed. I have to do what I can, but I just wish I could do it without making so many mistakes. [scribbles] said that it’ll be okay, and that it gets better, but it sure doesn’t fucking feel like it.

Skulker: 3; finished

Red Huntress: 2; temporary truce?

“He’s so full of...emotion for a ghost,” Maddie finally spoke up. 

Jack glanced at the paper she had in front of her. There was some notes of what they had been learning so far, and there were emotions written in all caps with a line under, and a list of various emotions. Emotions Phantom seemed to be displaying. Guilty, despair, loneliness, self-hatred, self-doubt. Despite the few entries, it was already quite a list.

“It’s not just him either,” Maddie continued. Jack rose an eyebrow at her. She didn’t immediately reply, fingers on her lips as she stared down at the journal. “He’s giving emotions to other ghosts too.”

Jack stared down blankly at the journal in his hands. 

“Where?”

Maddie began to write, and as she wrote, it clicked. Spectra’s joy in hurting others. Kitty and Johnny’s relationship. Walker’s spite. Cujo being a playful puppy. According to Phantom, and against what they knew as scientists, ghosts were experiencing a wide variety of emotions and for different reasons. It was weird. 

Jack continued to read.

October 17

I don’t know what happened the past few days. It’s this weird blur. According to [scribbles] and [scribbles] I did a lot of bad things under Freakshow’s control. [scribbles] hugged me and told me that it was nothing that we couldn’t fix, but I doubt that. Why does this keep happening to me? I don’t want to hurt people. I want to be a good person, and I want to help Amity Park, but I don’t know what keeps happening. Everything’s a fog, and I’m exhausted. 

Freakshow: 1; arrested by APPD

Circus ghosts: freed from Freakshow’s control, went back to the GZ

Replace Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, print out another sticker to put on it

“Freakshow...that was the weird circus guy,” Jack interrupted himself. Maddie nodded.

“Yeah, and if Phantom’s right...he could control the ghosts,” she mused. “So there’s a way for humans to take control of ghosts...That’s something to look into. If we can control the ghosts into staying away, it’d be such a massive scientific breakthrough.”

“We should look into Freakshow more, and see if we can talk to him!” Jack agreed. “Maybe he’ll share something with us.” Maddie smiled softly.

“I doubt that,” she replied gently. “But there’s no harm in trying. What else does it say?”

November 8

I have to fight Pariah Dark. I’m terrified. I don’t think I’ll live through it. How can I live through fighting the actual ghost king? I may never see my family again, and I can’t even tell them what happened to me if I die. I’ve been debating telling [scribbles] that I like her, but I don’t think I could bring myself to do it. 

What happens if I die? I have no clue. I’m scared to find out. I can’t die now. I have to make it back. I’ll go missing, and I won’t even be declared dead as my parents’ son. Nobody will know who to really look for. I have to come back. Maybe if I succeed, and people like me again after this, I can tell my family everything.

November 10

I couldn’t tell them. My parents still despise part of me, despite what I’ve done. I know they love me, cause my mom’s already been fussing over me like crazy because of my injuries. [scribbles] said she cried when they couldn’t find me, and that my dad had gone out looking for me all over the city, even in the dangerous parts. They of course love me, but do they really love me unconditionally?

Jack felt his voice trailing off as he hit the end. He coughed lightly, and he took a long drink. Maddie stared off into nothing. The only thing he could think of was his own search for his baby girl. He wasn’t alone, bumping into several other parents desperately looking for their missing children, and several children who got separated from their parents. The entire day was somber and frightening, and Maddie had spent the entire day glued to the phone. In case she called them. 

It was all...too real, and Jack flipped past more logs. He couldn’t help but begin to take note of how every single day had a log of ghost fighting activities, even if Phantom didn’t write down his feelings every day. This was so much more than the ghost hunting duo ever expected, more attacks than they were recording.

His eyes rested only for a moment on December 19, and he decided to just skip it. They had already read it earlier. No need to refresh those memories. More logs, and more missing pages, and he came upon another one. 

March 26

I ripped out a lot of pages, more than I intended. I can’t risk anybody finding out what happened, but also other pages revealed too much, so I kept them tucked away where nobody could ever find them. I’d burn them, but I don’t want to lose the ghost hunting data. It’s okay now. I fixed the problem and assured that everything’s going to be fine. Possibly better. I made the right choice this time, and now I know that one day, I will grow a sick beard. 

I know somebody knows my secrets now. All of them. She had known for months but wanted me to tell her. She asked me if I had a name, and ever since I told her that it was Danny, she’s been calling me that whenever she can. It made me cry the first time. It’s so great to have her know everything now. She loves me no matter what. I couldn’t ask for a better person. Even though she found out because I’m an idiot. This entire thing also made me realize how important it is to keep those secrets, and how poorly I’ve been keeping them. 

I didn’t ever mean for this to turn into a diary. I wanted to keep track of ghost fights. But it honestly helps with both the dysphoria and the stresses of being a ghost. I just went back and scribbled out names. Just in case. In the future I need to be more vague. 

But this is also the end for one secret. If things go wrong then well. I don’t know. I’ll make it up as I go along. But I know that this is who I am, and that I’m hitting a point where I need help to just be me. 

Him: 1; captured for good

Skulker: 2; captured

Desiree: 1; captured

Ectopusses: 1; captured

Cujo: 1, sent back to the GZ

Fenton Thermos: full

Fenton Anti-Creep Stick: destroyed, get new bat and sticker to put on it

Also learned a new ghost power: Ghostly wail. A scream that can just absolutely fuck somebody’s day up. I have to use it sparingly though.

Jack closed the journal, and he set it flat on the table. His mind was blank, and he couldn’t read Maddie. She continued to stare at the closed book, hand in pen but almost unsure as to what to even jot down as a note. He leaned in his seat, finishing his drink. Maddie exhaled deeply, dropping her pen in favor of stretching.

Neither said a word. Jack knew that this journal was not any kind of trick. It was too raw and emotional to be anything more than the thoughts of a teenage ghost. He regretted reading it. It held some interesting information, and he was sure if he dug deeper, that he would find more. But as it stood, his own intense guilt was settling as he knew that he just took too personal a look into the private emotional afterlife of Phantom.

“This is a lot to take in,” Maddie finally spoke. Jack only nodded.

The basement door opened, and they heard dual pairs of footsteps hop downstairs. Jack instantly brightened, and he turned in his chair to smile as his kids soon came into view.

“Hey, is this a bad time?” Jazz asked. She glanced between them, and Jack immediately shook his head no. 

“No, no,” Maddie replied quickly. Jack saw her push the journal and her notes, along with her pen and a few spare lab tools, carelessly into a drawer to help assure the Fenton kids that they weren’t interrupting anything. “What’s up, sweetie?” 

“Well, I have something that I wanna talk about,” their youngest spoke slowly. Jack noticed that she had finally taken off her hoodie, and that while she wore her normal tomboy attire, that something was a bit off about her. He couldn’t place it. Jazz stood close to her, an arm full of books clutched to her chest, though he couldn’t make out any titles. “It’s something important, and I don’t really want to put it off any longer.”

“Is something wrong? Are you in trouble?” Jack asked. His daughter shook her head no. 

“Oh, no!” she said. “It’s just…” 

She took a deep breath, and soon, their son began to explain.

[uselessundertalefacts]

I do want to say something about autistic characters in undertale and deltarune actually (cw for ableism)

In both games, but especially deltarune, there are a lot of characters who are outsiders. People call characters like Papyrus, Lancer, Kris, and Susie weird, strange, and childish, and say that “no one really likes [them]”. They’re isolated, and in most cases have few friends who aren’t related to them.

And in one way or another, all of them have neurodivergent traits. Papyrus has an idiosyncratic way of speaking, has special interests, and wears the same outfit for weeks. Lancer has an idiosyncratic way of speaking like Papyrus, strange interests like cartoon sound effects, and gets lost easily. Kris alternates between being sensory avoidant (dislikes hugs) and sensory seeking (huffs markers, sticks their fingers through park bench holes), and seems to be mostly nonverbal. Susie has two incidents that closely resemble meltdowns (the scene outside Alphys’s classroom and her fight with Lancer), eats non-food items (this could be partly a sensory thing), and struggles with solving puzzles, which could indicate a learning disability.

Looking at all of this together, it feels natural to say that all of these characters are coded as autistic. It isn’t just that they have autistic traits, it’s that in-universe, other characters treat them the way autistic people are often treated in real life. It’s the same reason mutants in the X-Men universe are considered to be LGBT+ coded. It isn’t that they are literally LGBT+, it’s that they fill the same social role. I don’t just relate to characters like Papyrus and Kris because they have DSM-V autistic traits, I also relate to feeling lonely and isolated and trying to get people to like me, or not bothering with other people at all.

So why does this matter? Well, I think it’s worth noting how Undertale’s approach to portraying autistic characters is different from Deltarune’s. It’s not a coincidence that Papyrus’s interests are mostly things people consider childish, or that he wears a costume. That’s a pretty common stereotype. Autistic people are assumed to be childish and wear weird clothes. I wouldn’t call Papyrus negative representation, but I won’t pretend that there are no harmful stereotypes being invoked here. (Undertale generally uses stereotypes to build its characters all the time, Alphys is a great example of this, but that’s a whole other discussion.)

Deltarune, on the other hand, has three autistic coded characters, and all of them are main characters, and all of them are completely different. None of them easily slot into a stereotype. The ways Susie and Lancer are undermined by society is the driving force behind them becoming friends so quickly, and their friendship is the entire plot of Chapter 1’s dark world section. When we aren’t in the dark world, we’re focused on Kris and their isolation in Hometown. It would be completely fair to say that Deltarune, or at least Chapter 1, is About how neurodivergent kids are left behind by society. Basically Deltarune doesn’t just use autistic coding to build its characters, it has Something to Say about how autistic people are treated in real life.

Part of the reason I’m bringing this up is because I think it’s really cool that Deltarune goes there. It’s not uncommon to have stories about a friend group of “weird” kids against the world or anything, but I haven’t really seen that in the context of a video game except for maybe in MOTHER 3, which seems to be a big influence on Hometown. I also want to bring it up because I think we need to think more critically about how we talk about autistic coded characters in fandom. I’m hardly the first person to bring this up, but this fandom has a big problem with infantilizing Papyrus and treating him like a symbol of purity and innocence, which kind of sucks when real disabled adults are objectified this way in inspiration porn. There’s also a lot to be said about how characters like Kris are (often literally) demonized for having neurodivergent traits, like not wanting to be hugged. Treating neurodivergence like a horror movie trope is another pervasive real life problem with serious consequences. (This doesn’t affect autistic people quite as much as it affects, for example, psychotic people, but plenty of charity organizations have run ads that frame autism as an evil force that steals children and ruins marriages while deliberately invoking horror movie tropes, so it’s relevant.)

I don’t know how to end this, so.... I’d talk more about Alphys but she deserves her own post. Maybe one day.

[afterthelastreset]

Story Of A Father

Being a single father to a spade child wasn't easy. He should know. Feeding Lancer and trying to keep him out of trouble was no easy feat. Trust me, he's done this job for quite a few years but it was harder when one has to consider the fact that as a very energetic child and now as king he technically didn't have to follow the same rules he had to when he was simply a prince less than two months ago. But that didn't mean he didn't listen to Rouxls either, calling him Dad still and listening whenever Rouxls scolded him or gave him advice. But that didn't mean he still couldn't pull the 'I'm King now so you have to do as I say now' card, and Rouxls had to obey the laws set down by the king. And while worms were enough to content him for now, he had a feeling he'd be bothered again with the matter very soon The rest of that day had gone by slowly....VERY slowly. The boy had him running around behind him for the remainder of the day, wearily looking his shoulder every show often out of habit, expecting you know who to show up magically at any moment, but no matter how many times he thought he heard the unruly laughing or feared of seeing that madman's smile upon his face like the other incidents between the two, it never came. It was probably just the darkness of the shadows that he always saw, but couldn't help but flinch at. It just reminded him too much of what really used to take place behind closed doors when the small bouncing boy wasn't looking. He still had nightmares of what he'd heard about at the hands of the Ex-King Spades or the rare times he'd walk in on something he'd rather forget but couldn't....Or the few times he....personally had his own demonstration of what happened when one displeased their king......Which Lancer didn't need to know about, not now or ever. He'd die before letting the child be tainted by his father's past actions.  "Lesser Dad?" The worm monster stopped his internal rambling and snapped his head back down to the small boy holding his hand. Lancer gave off a tired puppy sounding yawn showing off his mini fangs and bright blue tongue for a couple seconds before his mouth reclosed. He gave a tired smile up at him. "I'm starting to get tired from all this King stuff. Can I go to bed now?" "*sigh* Of course. Even the greatest of kings needs their sleep." He gave another smile before looking over his shoulder again around the darkness of the hallway behind them for a moment. Lancer leaned sideways to take a look at what his father was looking at, when he didn't see anything he turned back to Rouxls.  "What are you looking at?" "Uh..I- N-Nothing. I'm just tired as well." He gave off another fake smile to try and seem relaxed around the child. Tugging his hand gently to motion him along down the hallway. "N-Now thou was saying?" Lancer didn't question the smile and just tiredly trudged along, trying to keep up with Rouxls's long strides in his tired state. He yawned again showing off his k-9s and inner mouth before reaching up a paw to rub at his face hole.  "I'm tired...." "I can see that. Thou's had a long day haven't you?" He chuckled trying to lift the invading feeling of anxiety from bubbling up from the surrounding shadows. It's going to take a while to get over feeling constantly drained from the last person he took orders from.  "Mmm hmmm." Rouxls gave a sigh before trying to walk a bit faster towards the royal bedroom. He had a few things to get down that night and needed to put Lancer to bed to have one less thing to worry about doing that night- He stopped when he felt Lancer's hand slip from his, and he turned around. The small boy stood there slightly rocking back and forth slowly blinking his tired face hole. He yawned once again and reached both paws up to wipe at his face. Rouxls stopped and stared at the child for a moment before sighing and shaking his head, his legs carried his back over to the spade where he stopped and leaned down, holding his arms out to either side of him. The small spade reacted instantly by reaching up and wrapping his arms around the worm's neck, Rouxl's arms instantly went around the child before lifting him up with a grunt. Lancer being a spade, was naturally bigger and heavier than any other child his own age due to the fact that he would grow to be HUGE adult like his father as he got over, so naturally the duke stumbled a bit on his first few steps carrying Lancer towards his bedroom. The small child sighed and snuggled into the cool feeling of Rouxls's skin. It was almost like a water bed, but firmer. They went down the hall shuffling and grunting until reaching a door connected to the far wall. It was a bit difficult to balance a heavy child in one arm while trying to reach for the door with the other. He fumbled a bit, but managed to turn the knob before shoving the door open with his foot. It swung open with a creek and Rouxls shuffled his way into the dark room. He could still faintly see the small toys scattered across the floor and a few other various knick knacks here and there despite it though, and was able to kick most out of his way as he made it over to the bed. Upon reaching it, he sighed and once again did the juggling act of balancing a now sleeping Lancer in one arm as he reached over to pull back the blankets with the other hand all the while not trying to fall over himself. He ended up gently plopping Lancer down onto the mattress and accidentally waking him up in the process. He blinked a couple times before yawning as Rouxls pulled up the blankets to be level with his chest.  "Lesser Dad...*yawwwwwwnn* C-Could you tell me a story?" "Aren't thou a little old for stories?" A small paw grabbed his hand as he was about to tuck in the small spade.  "Please?" A small silence. And then he sighed again but this time with a smile. "Alright. But just a short one." Lancer happily complied to the tuck ins as the duke pulled the blanket farther up his body- "Once there was a King and Queen, and they eventually bore a son-" "Like me?" "In a way, but not everything was well." A grimace came to his face and he leaned back up from the bed. "Thy king was always a bit....unpredictable with his behaviors, but it got worse when his Queen vanished-" "Where did she go?" The small spade questioned still blinking sleepily at him, battiling the urge to nap. "*sigh* I wish I knew-...Uh- I mean-" He coughed and looked away. "N-No one really knewest where thine Queen went. She may have runneth away or went into hiding somewhere far away from her kingdom. You see-...Thee King's wasn't very nice to everyone despite thine Queen's patience o-or her kind words....but h-he loved her. V-Very much, and I guess losing her pushed him to thou's edge."  He gave off a spaced expression and almost forgot Lancer was still awake when he asked- "What happened to them?" He flinched and stuttered. "U-Uh...Well-...The King grew to be more...." Cruel, murderous, insane?? "....More distant to his true duties as his subjects king. H-He made a lot of....mistakes that everyone nay liked, nor did he do anything to fix said mistakes." "What happened to the baby...?" Rouxls chuckled and his face became the slightest bit softer. "The king's son grew up to be very troublesome, but also very kind and...determined. Everything the king once was but had forgotten. He...was the good that came out of something so evil. I still shan't ever knowest how but he did-" "What....happened...n-next..?" "Thy prince rallied an army of his own and defeated the evil king of course. And became a good ruler as he would've been either way, and grew up to be a happy man with a family of his own one day-" "W-Wait." He sat up slightly and blinked up at him with his last awakeness power. "W-What about the mom? Did she come back?" The Duke stared at nothing silently for a moment before sighing and shaking his head. "I'm afraid not." "What? But that's not fair!" "Well-..." He finally looked back to him. "Sometimes there are some people who nay have any happy endings to their stories, and sometimes stories don't have thine happily ever after at all....or completely. Some still deal with their own...uh- difficulties even after they get thou's happy ending-..." He was interrupted by the sound of a soft snore and he glanced back to Lancer, who was happily asleep now. He sighed before reaching a hand over to pull the blanket up slightly before slipping his grip free. He took  few moments just staring at the sleeping child before silently turning and taking his leave from the room careful to not step on anything on the way out and closing the door silently.  "We all have our happy endings eventually. But I'm afraid thou's is just in the beginning pages."

(This was a request for @caprabones I don’t own Deltarune or it’s characters)

[entamewitchlulu]

Holding Back the Sky

part two of Holding Up the Stars

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V

Pairing: Pendulumshipping (Yuya/Reiji)

Characters: Yuya, Reiji, Reira, Lancers, others

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: depictions of child experimentation

Summary: Reiji and Yuya have come a long way since their first defection from the Imperial Navy with rescued child experiment Reira -- now, they have a whole crew on their side, and are ready to strike back instead of running away. But they have a powerful enemy, and fostering a rebellion against the galaxy’s greatest superpower will not be easy -- and will ask more of them than they were ever prepared to give.

commission for @czoedy!

Ao3

*

Reiji presses a gentle hand to the wall of the ship, running his fingers over the sleek metal.  His fingers slip down to run across the top of the couch.  It seems so long ago, somehow — so long ago that he was first sitting in this tiny lounge, talking to Yuya while Reira slept.  Sharing secrets neither of them had ever shared before.

“Reiji?” 

Yuya’s voice drifts through the now empty speeder.  Reiji turns.  Yuya stands in the doorway, one hand hovering over the doorframe.  His eyes search Reiji’s for a moment, and then a faint, gentle smile spreads over his lips.  He leaves the frame behind and walks over to Reiji, putting his arms around him.  Reiji automatically embraces Yuya back, dropping his head into Yuya’s hair and breathing deeply.

“It’s not easy to say goodbye, huh?” Yuya says, breath tickling Reiji’s neck.

Reiji lets out a sigh, smiling slightly.

“You read me so easily, did you?”

Yuya leans back, still staying in Reiji’s arms, and smiles.

“Of course I do,” he teases, planting a quick kiss on Reiji’s nose.  “I’m not happy about saying goodbye to this ship, either.”

Reiji glances around the tiny lounge, just big enough to hold seven people, if you squished.  This ship isn’t made for the size of crew that they were carrying.  There is no practical reason to keep it if they could find a way to get another ship.

And yet...still, his heart aches.

“It’s illogical,” he says.  “But yes.  I will miss it.”

Yuya smiles.  He hugs Reiji a little tighter.  And for a moment in their shared embrace, all of the moments they spent together in this little ship — their impulsive plot for Reiji to pose as hostage, the secrets shared in the dark, the first kisses and gentle explorations of each other’s skin — seem to be enfolded between them.

“My mom always said that memories last longer than where they were made,” Yuya says.

Reiji smiles.  He runs a hand through Yuya’s hair.

“Your mother is wise,” he says.  “I hope I can meet her someday.”

“Me too!  She’d love you.”

An annoyed tapping causes the pair of them to break apart, though Yuya’s hand still slides down to grab hold of Reiji’s.  Selena raises both her eyebrows at them, with a snickering Dennis attempting to cover his mouth behind her.

“Are you lovebirds done??” she says.  “We’ve got a ship to steal, and not much time to do it.”

Reiji can’t help but crack a smile.  It’s somehow hilarious to him, for a moment, to think about how odd this situation is — just a few months ago, he would have had to discipline Selena for speaking to him that way.  And now, all he can do in response was chuckle — yet another thing he wouldn’t have felt able to do in front of his subordinates just a few months ago.  Being a defected soldier has a certain feeling of freedom with it.

“We’re coming,” he says.  “Just saying goodbye.”

“When did you get so sentimental?” Dennis asks, still grinning.

Reiji squeezes Yuya’s hand, and Yuya looks up at him, his smile widening.

“It must have been about the moment I arrived in this ship,” Reiji says, with a smile of his own.

*

Yuya doesn’t like the plan.

Of course they need a new ship.  He gets that.  Their current ship is too small to hold all of the crew they never expected to have, and besides, the navy knows exactly what kind of ship they’re in, so they can be tracked more easily.  They need something new — something bigger, faster, more reliable, with more updated information in its data banks, and something that will take the navy at least a little bit of time to attribute to them.

Still.  There had to be other options.

He bites his tongue, however, standing in position, blaster held firmly at his side, kneeling down behind the packing container.  The smell of rocket fuel wafts around the shipyard, making him wrinkle his nose.  Somewhere, something clangs as someone drops something, and some swears in another language are followed by deep, throaty laughs.  He hears a ship’s engine turn on, and glances up to see a speeder taking off, becoming visible over the tops of the packing container.  Navy — top of the line.  This is about as close as they were going to get to the Capital’s latest tech this far out in the galaxy — far enough away from the Capital to hopefully not have too many people coming after them, but close enough that they’d have as new of tech as possible.

Yuya closes his eyes.

How’s it going?

It takes a moment for Reira to respond.

Everyone’s where they’re supposed to be.  Reiji says...hold.

Yuya nods.  Reira is tucked somewhere towards the end of the shipyard, with Gongenzaka and Sawatari guarding her.  Her telepathy is their only means of communication for now, at least until they can get communicators.

Are you sure you feel up to doing this? Yuya asks.

Once again, it takes a moment for Reira to respond.  She’s probably overwhelmed already, he frets.  Everyone is probably trying to talk to her at once, and she’s trying to relate messages to everyone back.

Her voice comes back through his mind with a surprising clarity and determination.

Yes, she says.  I want to help.

Yuya bites his lip.  He doesn’t want to do this.  He doesn’t want Reira to be in harm’s way like this.  But she hadn’t let him stop her from telling the crew what she could do, and asking to help.  And despite the uncertainty in Reiji’s face, he’d agreed, for lack of better options.

Yuya opens his eyes again, and lifts his blaster.  He waits for the signal.

It comes quietly, so quick he almost misses it.  Just the flash of a light against an already bright sky, reflected off of Selena’s blaster.  He moves without hesitation.

Yuya runs low to the ground, blaster held low, checking corners quickly and briefly as he goes.  When he makes it out of the maze of packing containers, he finds himself out on the port itself — a wide, stone and metal apparatus with pillars of steel and wire forming the communication towers, speeders parked neatly in rows.  Yuya sees his target immediately — it’s almost the biggest one of the bunch, a large, but not massive, cruiser.  Big enough to hold everyone, well manned with plenty of weapons, still quick and maneuverable. 

There are at least five mechanics milling about the port, some of them carrying beams between a pair, a few hauling tools, two sitting against a low wall to take a smoke.  The security is lax for a navy base — there’s a tired looking guard yawning as they check their holophone, and a handful of soldiers talking and gesturing at one of the speeders.  But Reiji’s information is correct — this base is understaffed, and most of the speeder owners are currently in the city.

Yuya holsters his blaster.  As he walks casually out of the maze of packing containers, hat pulled low, Selena appears and falls into step beside him, as though they’d come in together.  His heart screams, but he forces himself to walk nonchalantly, slowly, towards the cruiser.  He’s in a new navy uniform, lent to him by Sawatari, and hopefully, if no one looks closely enough at the two of them, they might just...

Selena walks confidently, like she’s supposed to be here, and Yuya tries to match her.  One of the mechanics glances at them, and then looks away, continuing on his journey.  One of the mechanics taking a smoke, a short, stocky girl who looks slightly too young to be smoking, glances at them as well.  Her lips turn downwards.  Yuya tries not to look at her.  They’re almost to the cruiser.

For one brilliant moment, it seems like it’s going to work.  

Then the mechanic who had given them a look and kept going stops.  He drops his tools and whips around.

“Hey!!” he shouts.  “Hey, guard!!  They’s on the wanted posters!”

Well, shit.

Two perfect shots ring out over the port.  Just as the soldiers by the plane are looking up at the shout, two of them are already down, tranquilizers sticking from their necks.  Tsukikage really is an incredible sniper — Yuya can’t even see how far back he is, and those shots were perfect!

Unfortunately, they were enough warning for the other soldiers, and the guard, to duck behind cover.  Yuya and Selena both charge for the cruiser while laser fire starts to rain out over them from the covered soldiers.  An alarm screams out over the base. 

Reiji says hurry up!! Reira calls into Yuya’s head.

“Got it, got it!” Yuya says.  He skids to a stop next to the cruiser, and Selena pushes him behind her, taking up a defensive position as she yanks out her blaster.  He fumbles in his pocket, almost dropping the circular circuit before he manages to slap it onto the side of the cruiser.

A curious, floaty sensation passes over him, and his mouth goes dry.  The circuit glows a deep, rich teal, cool energy wafting off of it — for a brief, eerie moment, Yuya feels as though Reira is standing right next to him.  Her mind link with him turns to a faint buzz of static as she starts to concentrate.

The teal light begins to crawl over the sides of the cruiser — slowly.  Too slowly.  Yuya doesn’t dare ask Reira to hurry up, though.

Don’t worry about taking over the whole thing!  Just try to get the doors open, and we can take care of the rest!

He’s not even sure if Reira can hear him, she’s too busy focusing on her task.  He peeks out over Selena’s shoulder, but Selena shoves him back down as she takes a few more shots.  She swears when a laser blast grazes her side — the air starts to buzz overhead.  Security bots are coming, Yuya thinks with a swear.

The little drones fill the air with a horrible whirring of mechanical wings, vaguely shaped like articulated giant mosquitoes.  Lasers fire out of what would have been a proboscis, while they dart down and get past the cover to make sweeps over Yuya and Selena.

Three shots ring out, and three drones go down.  Yuya swears as he sees Dennis and Shun coming out of the maze, firing at the soldiers to keep them pinned down — the drones swoop them, and Shun takes a hit to the shoulder that forces him to switch his blaster into another hand.

It’s not just drones, Yuya realizes with his mouth drying.  More soldiers are coming.  He can see them in the distance, coming over the packing units on their single-passenger hovercrafts, aiming anti aircraft weapons down at everyone.  Yuya tries to scream at them to look up, but his throat catches.

The cruiser beside him shudders.  And then it moves.

Yuya has to duck, dragging Selena down with him as the wing nearly decapitates them.  The cruiser shoots backwards on its landing gear, shuddering and jumping.

Reira! You don’t have to control it!

But Reira doesn’t seem to be able to hear him.  The teal light of her powers encases the entire cruiser in a pattern like a circuit board — or like veins.  The cruiser spins in place, causing Shun and Dennis to have to duck down and stagger back.  Hovercrafts dive out of the way, clear shock scattering their formations for a moment.

The cruiser shudders.  Yuya sees the blasters moving, trying to train on hovercrafts, but they’re sluggish, and no power floods their cores. 

“Reira!” Yuya screams out loud, even though he’s sure she can’t hear him.  “Reira!! Stop!! You’re only going to hurt yourself!!”

There’s no way that Reira should be able to hear him — and maybe she doesn’t.  Maybe it’s just a horrible coincidence that after that, the cruiser shudders — and the teal lights go out.  The back door does crack, though — enough for Yuya to wedge it open if he tries.

“Selena!  Cover me!” he shouts.

Selena just nods, following him with her blaster held up while Yuya dives for the cruiser.  He tries to scramble up along the ladder on the side — if he can just reach it, he might be able to unlock it — 

A drone swoops for his head.  His eyes widen as he sees the laser aimed right between his eyes, and for a moment, the world goes quiet and slow.  For a moment, he hears Reiji screaming his name in slow motion, hears the shouts and yells of his friends like echoes at the end of a tunnel.  For just one moment, he knows that he’s going to die.

At least, until, a wrench crunches through the drone, and cool wind cuts past him.  He gasps, eyes widening — for a moment, he’s not sure what’s saved them, until the small, darting thing shoots backwards.

He gapes to see the mechanic from before — the girl who looked too young to be smoking — hovering in the air on a hovercraft he’s never seen before.  It looks like...well, it looks like a witch’s broom.  The girl stands on it with her boots locked into it, a cool air blasting out of the bell-shaped end with a bright blue flame.

And she’s not the only one, he realizes with a start.  Someone on a hovercraft shaped like a wheel, boots locked inside, shoots around the field, spraying drones with blasts of what looks like a crimson fire.  There are a few other shapes darting about the battleground, taking out drones, hovercrafts — covering for his friends.

“Hurry up!” the girl shouts at him, throwing a tool towards him which he fumbles to catch.  “Get that thing open and let’s get the hell out of here!”

Yuya doesn’t bother worrying about it.  He just whips the tool towards the hull of the ship, and forces it into the crack.  

The bay door slides open like a dream, and he drops down the ladder.

“Everyone!” he shouts.  “We’ve got it!”

He wants to wait, make sure everyone gets in, cover them, but Selena grabs him by the collar and hauls him inside the ship, dropping him there before bolting towards the control deck to get the ship in the air.  Yuya can only hang there for a moment, dizzy from the fight, while the rest of the crew piles in one after the other.  Reiji shoots to him immediately, briefly grabbing him in a tight hug that makes him even more dizzy, before turning around again to cover the back with his own blaster.

The bay doors begin to wrench shut — but just before they’re too thin to fit through, three hurtling hovercrafts come tumbling in, sneaking in neatly before the cruiser shuts, and the cruiser takes to the sky.

Yuya reaches for his blaster, heart hammering.  But the three hovercrafts who came in with them aren’t the enemy.  It’s the girl, and the man in the wheel-shaped hovercraft, and one other man unlocking himself from a hovercraft that looks like a board with a sail made of black feathers.

“Who are you?” Selena demands, shoving her blaster in the girl’s face.

The girl nonchalantly pushes it away, unlocking herself from her hovercraft and grabbing it to hold it beside her, using it to help her get up like a walking stick.  She dusts herself off as though she doesn’t have multiple weapons trained on her.

She lifts her quick, hazel-yellow eyes, and smirks as she tosses back a sprig of mint-green bangs from her face.

“I’m the person who just saved your ass,” she says.  “So a thank you might be nice.”

*

Reiji is tense.  He doesn’t look it from the outside, of course — he looks as perfectly put together as always, even though his uniform is starting to get patchy and they haven’t had a chance to have a proper wash in weeks.  Even then, he looks like he’s perfectly calm and in control, sitting with his back perfectly straight, his eyes perfectly calm and level, and not a hint of emotion in his face.

Yuya’s gotten to know him quite well, though.  He can see the tightening in his jaw that means he’s not enjoying this — that he’s quite nervous.

The other three, for their part, don’t look nervous at all.  The girl with the bright green hair sits leaning back in her chair with her hands behind her head, a floppy hat pulled over her bangs.  The taller man with the slicked back blond hair has his arms folded, scowling at everything and everyone that moves.  And the third one, a man with bushy orange hair and markings all over his face, leans his elbows on the table, smirking to himself.

“Well,” Reiji says, breaking the silence.  “Perhaps you’d like to introduce yourselves.”

The girl with the green hair starts to open her mouth, but the blond man elbows her in the shoulder, and she glowers at him.  The blond man, dressed all in white, leans forward slightly.

“My name is Jack Atlas,” he says.

The name gets a small noise of shock from Dennis, and Yuya glances at him.  He’s leaning against the wall behind Reiji, with the rest of the crew surrounding the rest of the briefing room — this new ship of theirs is quite nice.  They can all fit in here easily, and could even sit at the table all together.  No one except Yuya was willing to sit down, however, spreading out around the room as though to make the intruders understand that they were here on Reiji’s terms.

“You’re joking,” Dennis says. “Jack Atlas?  There’s no way Jack Atlas would be out here fighting against the Navy.”

“Oh?” the man who calls himself Jack says, raising an eyebrow.  “And why is that?”

Yuya’s never heard the name before, so he’s not positive what Dennis is talking about.  Reiji makes a small noise of understanding, then, eyes flickering back to Jack.

“It does seem odd,” he says, “that the navy’s greatest propaganda machine would be in such a situation.”

“You guys are all real behind,” the girl quips.  “Jack’s not a navy dog.”

“Hush, Rin,” Jack scolds her.

The girl rolls her eyes.  Jack turns his attention back to Reiji.

“It’s true,” he says.  “I have been...coerced into working with the navy’s delegation to Synchron.”

His lips tighten.

“But it’s become a front.”

Reiji’s eyebrow quirks up.

“Oh,” he says.  “Interesting.”

“We’re from the Separatists,” the orange-haired man says, leaning forward a bit more.  “Name’s Crow, by the way.  Crow Hogan.  Jack here’s been our inside guy in Synchron for a while.”

Oh, Yuya thinks, eyes widening.  Now he knows who Jack is.

He remembers, now, from his time in the academy.  Synchron, the long-standing enemy of the Imperial Navy, had grudgingly allowed delegates to join them for a time.  A Synchron citizen, one Jack Atlas — a celebrity of a sort — had begun having public meetings with the delegates, to convince Synchron to join the Imperial Alliance.

“There was a time I believed the Alliance would be good for Synchron,” Jack says.  “That was before...well.  Before all of you.”

Yuya blinks.  He glances at Reiji, to see that some of Reiji’s mask has slipped.  Reiji’s lips parted.

“Us?” Yuya asks, turning back to Jack.

Jack folds his arms.  Crow grins, reaching around Rin to clap him on the back.

“He’s gonna be all high and mighty about it,” he snickers.  “Truth is, Jack was in contact with us in the Separatists all through the time he was working with the delegation.  But he had cold feet committing to us at first.  Wasn’t sure if he wanted to go for it.  Up until we heard the news about this one getting away with military tech.”

Crow nods at Yuya, and Yuya flushes.

“Really?” he says.

“It’s not every day that someone bolts off with tech — especially not when they’re military themselves,” Rin says, leaning back again and lacing her fingers behind her head.  “So we looked into it.  We managed to crack some scrambled lines, and connect you and the stolen tech to the lab where you got it.  Or, rather, her.”

Rin flicks her eyes over to Reira, who jumps and hides behind Tsukikage’s legs.  Tsukikage puts a gentle hand on her head.

“But how would you break into that line?” Reiji asks, eyes actually widening.  “The encryptions on that lab are...”

Rin flashes him a self-satisfied grin.

“Because,” she says, “I’m the best damn hacker in the world.”

“That’s not the point here,” Crow says, waving a hand.  “The point is, we showed Jack the data we found, and he immediately swung to our side.”

“Imagine our surprise when we find your entire crew on the same base we’re on,” Jack says.  “An opportunity like that doesn’t come every day.”

Reiji levels his eyes to Jack’s, and Yuya can almost feel the thread between them pulling tight with tension.  Neither of them are about to drop the other’s gaze.

“And?” Reiji says.  “What do you intend to do from now, then?”

Jack does not lower his gaze, in fact, it almost seems to intensify.  Yuya can barely look at him, and Jack’s not even looking at Yuya.

“We’ve got a proposal for you,” he says.  “In two weeks, there’s set to be a vote on whether or not Synchron joins the Alliance.  At the moment, the votes are swinging towards joining.”

A chorus of swears rises up from the rest of the crew, and Yuya stiffens.  What?  No, that mean...that would be the last major star system in the galaxy, under Imperial rule.  Jack raises a hand and the room reluctantly quiets.  Yuya automatically slides his hand under the table, and find’s Reiji’s hand.  Reiji meets his, and their fingers twine tightly together.

“With the right timing, and the right support, however,” Jack says.  “We can swing the vote back the other way.  Synchron can declare permanent independence from the Alliance.”

“That could end in war,” Reiji says.

Jack smirks.

“It could,” he says.  “Which is why we want your help.”

Reiji’s hand tightens against Yuya’s.  Yuya can hear the hitch in his throat.  His uncertainty.  He’s not sure if he should commit to this.  It could cause more problems.  That must be what he’s thinking.

But Yuya feels a fire in his chest.  If Synchron stands up to the Imperial Navy...if just one place proves it’s possible...

“If Synchron stands up, others will follow,” Rin says.  “And the Navy might just find out it isn’t the superpower it thinks it is.”

Reiji’s jaw clenches.  He glances about the room, briefly, taking each of the crew in turn.  His eyes fall on Yuya’s last.  Yuya smiles at him, and squeezes his hand.

“We can’t run forever,” he says.  “Sometime, we’re going to have to fight back.”

Reiji’s lips tighten again.  But then he softens.  His fingers twist around Yuya’s.  He looks back to the Separatists.

“Very well,” he says.  “And what would you like from us?”

*

This ship is big enough that they no longer have to each crunch into the small lounge, or tuck themselves into the pilot’s seats, to sleep.  In fact, there’s enough crew space that they only have to put two or three to a room, and no one has to share a bed.

Reiji doesn’t mind, however, when he hears the door crack open, and instead of going to his own bed, Yuya climbs straight into Reiji’s, burrowing himself into Reiji’s arms.  Reiji turns to meet him, wrapping his arms around him.  Yuya kisses him briefly, and then sighs, snuggling deep into his grip.

For just a few moments, they lay like that, just their breaths tangling in the quiet dark.

“Are you worried?” Yuya asks softly.

Reiji considers the question, rolls it around in his mind.  Yes, he is worried — this public antagonism of the Imperial Alliance could go horribly wrong.  A war could break out over it.  Hundreds of thousands could die.  Or at the very least, Synchron could find itself brutally occupied.  He doesn’t doubt that the Separatists have a plan, that they know more about their own work than he currently has the information to work with — but that’s just it.  He hates not having information.  If there’s one thing about being a navy officer that he misses, it’s being able to immediately download as much information as he wants in an instant.  He’s adrift, without the networks he used to be able to take advantage of.  He has to trust much more.  And trusting...it’s difficult, even now.

“I don’t know,” he says, breathing into Yuya’s hair.  “We have so few good options.  It’s good that this one simply presented itself to us.  But...I wonder if it’s the only one we truly have.”

Yuya is quiet for a moment.  He leans up, then, and kisses Reiji softly again.  Reiji kisses him back, and his hand slides up into Yuya’s hair.  Yuya breaks off first, breathing against his lips.

“A war might happen no matter what we do,” he says.  “I don’t want to admit it, either.  But whatever happens, we have to be ready for it.  And we face it together.”

Reiji breathes in, closing his eyes and tucking himself in against Yuya’s hair.  He doesn’t need to say thank you out loud, because Yuya understands, his hand running up Reiji’s back before coming back to stroke his hair soothingly.

Reiji’s near asleep when he hears the door crack open, startling from the moment of half dreams.  He jumps a little, hand fumbling towards his blaster automatically.  He stops, however, when he feels the brush of Reira’s mind against his, letting his hand fall slack instead.

“Reira?  Are you there?” he says.  Yuya stirs beside him — he’d clearly been asleep, too his eyes cracking open groggily.

Reira has learned she doesn’t have to ask anymore, so the bed crinkles beneath her as she clambers up onto it, crawling over Reiji’s back to insert herself between the two of them.  Reiji resituates, carefully tucking his arm over her as Yuya snuggles her close as well.

“Reira?  Is everything all right?”

He opens his eyes fully, despite the dark, when he feels the tears against his arm.  He reaches gently for Reira’s face, wiping at her teary eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Yuya asks, worried.

I’m sorry!!

Reira tucks her head under Reiji’s chin, coiling up into him and shaking.  Reiji pushes himself up onto one elbow — he looks at Yuya over the top of the trembling Reira, perhaps if he knows why she’s apologizing.  But he looks as mystified as Reiji.  Reira sniffles and clutches tighter to Reiji’s shirt.

I’m sorry, it was all my fault!

“Reira, did you have a bad dream?” Yuya asks, stroking her hair.

Reira shakes her head wildly.

It was my fault today!  I couldn’t control the ship very well!  I almost hurt people and I wasn’t able to help at all!

“Oh, Reira,” Reiji says, holding her a little tighter.  “No.  That wasn’t your fault.  We never should have asked you to do that.”

But I said I would!! I said I could help!! And now...I didn’t help at all!! I-if those people hadn’t come and helped then...then...

She sobs, shoving her face into Reiji’s chest and clinging so tightly that her fingers pinch into Reiji’s skin through his shirt.

You might have disappeared and left me and it would have been all my fault —

“Reira, no, no, no,” Yuya soothes, scootching closer to squeeze her between the two of them.

Reiji keeps stroking her hair, trying to soothe the sobs, but it seems as though Reira is not listening to them. All she can do right now is cry.  Reiji’s stomach twists, as he closes his eyes and holds her and Yuya a little more tightly to him.  He never should have let Reira help.  She’s too young.  She’s too scared.  They need to protect her.

He tucks his head against Yuya’s over the top of Reira’s, and holds the two of them close.

He needs to protect this, more than anything.  No matter what happens...no matter where their missions take them...he needs to protect this.

*

Yuya hovers anxiously in the hallway.  His eyes flicker back and forth, fingers drumming along his blaster.  He knows in his gut that he’s acting suspicious, but he’s nervous.  The Synchron army uniform that Jack gave him as cover is a little too small for him, and he’s positive that anyone who looks at him is going to automatically know who he is and that he’s not supposed to be here.

He keeps his back to the wall, looking up and down the long, empty hallway.  Beside him, the door to the control room hangs slightly open.  Rin has disappeared inside, and he’s her only cover.  He can hear her swearing softly as she toggles keys and plugs in cords, doing whatever it is you need to do to hack into the visual systems of an entire governmental base.  The guard who had been managing this hallway is inside, out cold.

Yuya checks his watch — it’s not a watch, but a holofeed on a private server, showing him where his friends are now.  Jack Atlas is currently inside the Synchron seat of government, with the rest of the parliament as they finish their debates on whether or not to join the Alliance.  He’ll lead the outcry once Rin gets into the holofeeds, and displays the sensitive video data of the psychic laboratory that she took from Yuya, try to stir up anger and disgust in order to sway the vote at the last minute.

Reiji, Selena, Crow, and Tsukikage have taken the place of Synchron guards and soldiers scattered around the parliament room and outside it, ready to fight if it comes down to it — if the parliament decides to cannibalize itself, they’ll be there to keep things calm.  Or if they’re right, and the navy is waiting to attack in case Synchron decides not to sign a treaty, they’ll be there to defend them.  On the same note, Gongenzaka and the rest are in their speeder, cloaked and hovering over the planet along with a handful of other Separatists and other rebels combed from the galaxy — ready to defend Synchron from any punishment from the navy for not joining the Alliance.

Yuya tugs on his collar, licking his lips.  He hopes Reira is okay.  She begged not to be left on the ship, to come down to the planet with them.  But they couldn’t bring her — not again. She’s still too young to be in a war.  She’ll be safer up there, with the others to protect her.

Thinking about Reira makes him think of Reiji, and worry once again strikes him.  He hopes that Reiji will be all right.  That he won’t push himself, try to do too much again, to take on too much of the burden of this mission onto himself.  He’s already so tired.  He should have been left on the ship, too, to act as a commander.

“I’m tired of acting from afar,” he’d said to Yuya that morning when Yuya had protested him being right there on the front line.  “If I am to lead, I must show that I am willing to put myself on the line with the rest of my crew.  This isn’t the navy, and I won’t lead as though it is.”

Yuya chews on his lip thinking about the dark circles under Reiji’s eyes.  He hopes...he prays...that Reiji at least got some sleep last night.  None of them had been sleeping well on the way to Synchron, but Reiji slept more fitfully than most.

The door slams open beside him, and a grinning Rin bursts out.  She pumps one fist into the air in triumph, then grabs Yuya by the wrist and hauls him down the hall.

“Hey!  I’m supposed to be your point guard!” he protests, yanking his wrist free and hurrying to take point in front of.  “Did you finish?”

“Duh,” Rin says, pumping her fist again while she moves to run beside him, completely ignoring his formation.  “I’m the best hacker in the galaxy.”

Yuya manages to grab her by the shoulder before she careens around a corner, releasing his blaster and quickly checking his corners.  There’s no one around.  He nods and they take off across the hall again.

“We need to meet back up at the rendezvous point, then,” he says.

“What?  No way!  I want to go see the looks on all their faces when they see that video footage start playing!”

Rin grins again, and darts off in the opposite direction they’re supposed to go.  Yuya bites back a swear.

“Rin!!”

She doesn’t listen — and his mission is to protect her, so he has no choice but to go after her.  Also, he thinks with a twist in his stomach, he can’t deny how much he wants to go towards where Reiji — to back him up if a fight does break out.

Rin knows this building better than Yuya does, so despite him trying to stop her from careening around corners, she keeps ahead of him the whole way.  They don’t run into a single person — his skin crawls at that.  Where is everyone?  The soldiers?  The guards?  The staff?

Finally, Rin slows to a quick walk as they come around another hallway corner, and out into the main lobby of the state building.  There’s no one at the reception desk, Yuya thinks with another tingle of unease.  He turns to Rin while his eyes flicker around the room, to the second floor with its railings where a sniper could be hiding, and opens his mouth to ask her if she feels like something is wrong.

His body reacts before his mind catches up, grabbing Rin and yanking her back just before a bolt strikes her in the head.  He hauls her back against the wall, slamming them both into it under the cover of the upper level, and whips his blaster up.  Three more shots rain down, but they’re just out of range.  He sees the soldier bolting along the railing on the other side of the lobby.

He squeezes off two shots of his own, but they miss, and the soldier disappears.

“Whew!  Thanks for the save,” Rin says.  “Was that one of the navy’s?”

“I couldn’t tell,” Yuya says, heart racing.  “Come on, let’s go — we need to make sure they’re all okay.”

He checks more carefully this time before hurrying Rin across to the doors.  They push through them, and stumble out onto a hallway that wraps all the way around the parliament room.  Layers of other seats, filling up the whole bottom sphere of the room, are filled with people.  On the video screen suspended in the middle, the videos are playing — Yuya’s stomach turns to see the experiment data.  He stole that, he thinks.  He didn’t steal it — he saw it.  He saw those children screaming and crying in pain, and his heart clenches with panic as he thinks — I only saved one.

Parliament isn’t watching, though — his eyes scan the room, and he realizes that there’s...there’s been a scuffle.  A few people are cowering in their seats, others have thrown themselves to the floor, at least one is slumped over the back of their chair, and — and there, he sees Selena, holding her blaster threateningly at a small group of black-armored soldiers who are on their knees with their hands laced behind their head.  Crow manages another group of prisoners, while Jack is getting himself back up from his seat at the front of the room, straightening his jacket and looking more annoyed than distressed.

He slams a hand on his desk, making the whole thing shake as he leans into his microphone.  The actual speaker of the room sits absolutely shell shocked in the seat beside Jack, just staring widely while Jack takes over.

“Is this the kind of organization we want to be associated with?” he demands, pointing at the screens, and then at the soldiers Selena and Crow have under control.  “The kind that tortures children?  The kind that tries to murder governmental seats because they might vote against joining them?  Is that what we want to become?”

The room is silent except for the faint, echoing screams from the video footage.  Rin has gone still and silent beside him, just staring at the frozen chaos.  And Yuya’s mouth has gone dry.  

A voice clears its throat into a microphone.  Down among the parliament, a woman has stood up, smoothing out her skirt and replacing the rolled pin in her red hair as she leans into her microphone.

“Let us restart the vote,” she says, her voice clear and strong.  “All in favor of joining the Imperial Alliance?”

Not a single hand in the entire room raises up.  Even the speaker at his chair doesn’t move.  The woman’s eyes cut around the room, and then she leans forward more.

“All opposed?”

Nearly every hand raises up.  A silent defiance that reverberates around the room.  It’s the stone dropped into the pond, Yuya realizes faintly.  Synchron may as well have declared war.

Rin whoops and punches the air.  She grabs Yuya around the neck for an awkward hug, making him lean over and gasp.

But only one thought courses through his mind as his eyes flicker around the room of raised hands.

Where’s Reiji?

*

Reiji stikes out blindly, but his hands are once again deflected.  His blaster is gone — he’s not sure when he was disarmed, it all happened so quickly.  One moment, he was standing at one of the entrances to the parliament, watching as the video footage of the psychic lab began to play, searching for any signs of insurrection or danger to address — the next moment, someone had grabbed him from behind, a hand clamped over his mouth, and he couldn’t believe he’d been snuck up on.

He’d struggled for what feels like hours, now, bundled unceremoniously away from his position while a blinding visor was strapped over his eyes and his hands were wrestled behind him, shackled despite his best attempts to escape.

At some point, he’d been thrown to the floor — he has no idea if he was still only a few feet away from his post, or if he’d been taken farther.

“Who’s there?” he demands, as loudly as he can now that his mouth is free, in case one of his crew is near enough to hear him.  “Identify yourselves!”

There’s no answer.  He tries to struggle up to a sitting position, but a boot strikes him on the side, sending him sprawling back to the ground.

I’m being taken prisoner, he thinks, his mind whirling.  But why?  Why me, specifically?  If I’m here, they must know that my crew is — why not simply kill me?  

And what of the rest of his crew??  His heart races.  He needs to stay calm.  He needs to think.  Why is he being taken prisoner, and by who?

The ground rumbles beneath him, and his mouth goes dry.  He’s...he’s being moved.  He’s in some kind of vehicle.  A speeder?  Is he being taken off planet?  No, the rumbling feels more like treads.  He’s being moved by land.  But to where?

Helplessness overtakes him, and his body goes limp.  There’s...nothing he can do.  He’s clearly trapped — he’s such a fool, not keeping a better eye on himself!  Not even considering the possibility of something like this!  He has no idea now, even, if his team is safe, if their plan worked, if Synchron is breaking away from the Alliance, or if it’s been systemically broken apart by the navy.

Yuya, I’m sorry, he thinks suddenly, his heart clenching.  Yuya had asked him not to go into the field.  He’d told him he’d be more help if he was on commander’s duty in the ship, able to watch over everyone and direct them.  But he’s been a fool.  He wanted to prove that he was a leader who would respect his team, who would join them in the field.

Now, all he’s done is made himself a liability.

The trip to wherever it is they’re going doesn’t last long.  Unfortunately, without his vision, he can’t tell if the vehicle has been making turns, but he does at least manage to count the approximate minutes — at least thirty, or forty minutes he’s been gone from his position.  His team is definitely beginning to worry now, if they haven’t been taken prisoner or, worse, killed, by now.  

He shoves the thought aside.  No.  He has to have more faith in them.  They’re alive, and they’re free.

As the vehicle purrs to a stop and the rumbling comes to silence, two sets of rough hands grab him beneath the arms and haul him back to his feet, forcing him to walk.  He doesn’t fight, this time — wherever he is, he’s on someone else’s turf now.  Wasting his energy won’t help him in the long run.  He needs information, now.  That will be what gets him out of this mess.

He allows himself to be manhandled along a short path, and then up a set of steps.  Cool air blasts him in the face — he’s being brought inside a climate controlled building.  It’s either a high ranking Synchron government building, or it’s the Imperial Embassy.  Not many places on Synchron are highly advanced enough, or have enough money, to have climate control.  He’s taken up one more set of stairs, and hears another set of doors slide open before he’s bustled through.

“Sir.  Defected Admiral Akaba has been secured.”

The voice comes from one of the men holding him as he is forced to his knees.  He hears the snap of clothes as the man salutes.  For a moment, no one responds.  Then Reiji hears a chair creaking as someone stands up, and a soft sigh.  His skin crawls.  

“Very good,” says a voice that is all too familiar.  “Leave us.”

Reiji’s mouth goes dry and dusty.  He barely hears the boots of the men leaving the room.  An unbidden shake has begun to run through his entire body, despite all of his efforts to keep himself still.  It’s far too late.  He’s likely already noticed Reiji’s loss of composure.

The blinding visor turns off, sliding away from his eyes so that he can see who he’s looking at.

His father’s lips are tight, eyebrows low over his deepset eyes, as he considers Reiji.  Reiji tries to breathe.

“Admiral Akaba,” his father says, in a monotone voice.

“High Admiral,” Reiji says in response, trying to keep his voice level.

It doesn’t fool his father, and they can both see it.  Akaba Leo frowns.  He walks around his desk, and comes to stand in front of Reiji, looming over him.  Then he sighs, and shakes his head.

“I truly believed I had taught you better, my son,” he says.

It’s the familiar form of address that breaks Reiji’s last remaining dregs of composure.  His rage boils over in his chest, jaw clenching, hands tightening.

“And I thought, once that you cared for your children,” he says.  “It seems I was incorrect.”

Leo frowns at him again.

“This again,” he sighs.  “Losing Ray hurt me too, Reiji.”

“Not enough to investigate the circumstances of her death.”

“She was a soldier.  We all knew the risks she took.  And she was willing to take them.”

“Risks that you and your warmongering forced her and many others into!”

Leo shakes his head once more, sighing as he turns and returns back around his desk.

“It takes sacrifice, and difficult decisions, in order to bring peace to an entire galaxy,” he says.  “And I’m troubled, Reiji, that you would think it appproriate to sabotage my attempts at a peaceful integration.”

Reiji’s lip curls, and his words come out like spat poison.

“Peaceful?  You call creating an ambience of fear in order to coerce others into accepting your rule a peaceful integration?  You have never known peace, father.”

Leo’s brows draw together.  He sighs, steepling his fingers beneath his chin.

“It will give me no joy to put you on trial, Reiji, but I cannot give you any more special treatment than I already have.”

“Put me on trial, execute me if you must,” Reiji says.  “But you will never end what I have begun.  The wheels are already in motion.  I am not the center of it — my team will continue my work even without me.  The Alliance, and your navy, will fall.”

Leo actually looks saddened.  He shakes his head, and moves his hand to the table, where he pushes a button.

“I have secured my son,” he says.  “You may initate the launch sequence.”

Reiji’s blood runs into ice. His throat clenches around his heart.

“What are you about to do?” he manages to force out of his throat.

Leo sighs deeply, leaning back in his chair.  He twists the swivel around so that he can look out the large window behind him — a window, Reiji is now realizing, that is reinforced.  Bomb shields. This — this whole embassy is a bomb shield.  His heart screams.

“This revolution of yours will end here,” Leo says.  “I’m afraid the rest of your crew will not be joining you on trial.”

“You speak of peace before dropping bombs?” Reiji can’t help but yell, his voice beginning to crack.  “Are you even listening to yourself??  Thousands of noncombatants will die!”

Leo’s eyes do not flicker.  And he does not respond.  

Reiji scrambles up to his feet — his hands are still bound, but he can walk.  He bolts for the door.  It does not open, and he slams against it.  He slams his shoulder into it again. He has — to warn them.  He has to warn them about the warhead that is hurtling towards them — 

Leo doesn’t even try to stop him.  He just sits in his chair, and watches his holofeed on his desk, as the countdown begins.

“We must make difficult decisions,” he says, “in order to preserve the peace of an entire galaxy.”

*

Reira flings herself at Yuya, clutching at his shirt.  Yuya holds her back tightly, clinging to her, his heart screaming — he wonders if she can sense it, just how panicked he is, and he tries to tamp it down, at least for her.  Kurosaki runs from the speeder after her, the two of them having jumped out the back before Gongenzaka had even fully landed.

“Is it true?  Akaba’s missing?” Kurosaki demands.

Yuya can only nod, wooden and hollow.  Reira begins to sob, trembling in his arms.  Kurosaki swears.  He leaves the two of them without further comment, running over to where Selena and Tsukikage are discussing with Crow what to do now, how to track down Reiji, what to do to support the Separatists in defending Synchron and the parliament now that such a blatant declaration of independence has been made.

“Got it!”

Rin’s voice cuts over the group.  Yuya glances over his shoulder to see her bolting out from the parliament building, ignoring the others and running straight to Yuya with a small holoscreen in her hands, waving it over her head.  She skids to a stop in front of him and shoves the screen in his face.

“Video footage!  I found your guy!  Looks like some navy goons snapped him up just before the others attacked the parliament!”

Yuya’s eyes widen, and he snatches the screen from her.  Reira grabs his arm to pull it down towards her, so she can see too.  Yuya tilts the screen so she can see it, and they watch in stunned silence.  He sees Reiji, waiting just outside the parliament, blaster ready, eyes scanning the crowd for any signs of attack.  Then the soldiers appear out of thin air — they were cloaked, Yuya realizes with fear.  And they were only after Reiji.

He doesn’t want Reira to look at the scene of the soldiers grabbing hold of Reiji, snapping a blinding visor over his eyes as they drag him, kicking and struggling, away from his post.  But he can’t get her to let go of him in order to tilt it away from her.

“The navy took him,” Yuya says, mouth dry.  “But why?  Why just him?”

“Hell if I know,” Rin says, snatching the screen back and turning it towards her, tapping a few commands over the screen.  “But I at least got a look at the vehicle they took him in.  They can’t have gone far.”

She turns the screen towards them again, and Yuya sees a navy-issue land rover waiting outside the parliament building.  Reiji is thrown inside, and the doors close behind him and the soldiers.  The vehicle peals off.

Reira grabs at Yuya’s arm, tugging at him.

I can find him, she says.

“Reira, no, please, you’ll hurt yourself if you use your powers too much,” Yuya says.

I can find him!!! she insists, more desperately.  I don’t want him to go away!!

She releases him and whips around, putting out her hands in the air.  A faint teal glow mists from her fingers as she searches for the electrical signature of the vehicle that was once parked right out here in the video footage.  Yuya tries to grab hold of her, his heart racing.  She dances out of his grip, though, face screwed up with determination.  He’s seen what happens when she forces herself — she’s already so tired from trying to control that ship the other day.

Rin makes a faint choking sound, and Yuya’s gaze shoots towards her.  Her face is white, her eyes wide — her hands shake where they grip her screen.

“Actually, you might want to find him, and fast,” she says.

“What?  What’s wrong?”

Rin turns the screen towards Yuya one more time, and Yuya’s entire body freezes up.  Rin shows him a radar screen, a cross-section of the atmosphere overhead and the space just beyond it.  It also shows what looks like a very, very large object headed straight towards them — an asteroid maybe, or...or a bomb.

Rin and Yuya exchange a horrified glance.  Reira lets out a little cry, her whole body shaking.

“Evacuate the city,” Yuya gasps.  “I’m going to find Reiji.”

*

Reiji slams himself against the doors again, this time feeling as though something in him cracks — whether it’s a bone or his confidence, he’s not sure what.  He tries to push himself up to his feet, mind racing — there has to be something.  Something he can do.  He can get his hands freed, he can threaten his father to shut down the launch sequence, he can break the coded lock on this door and get himself out so he can warn them — 

But he can’t.  He can’t get his weight underneath him.  His legs are like jelly, now, and he collapses back to the floor, shaking and useless.  His glasses slide down his nose when he bends over, gasping for air.

Oh, god.

They’re all going to die.

“Please,” escapes his lips, even though he promised himself no matter what happened, that he would never beg.  “Father.  Please.”

For a moment, he’s a child again.  He’s shaking in the doorway of his father’s study, begging for him to look up from his desk, begging him to say something, to do something, about Ray, about her death, about the people who must be responsible for it, father, please, look at this data, please listen — 

But his father is unmoved, and unshaken.  Reiji trembles against the floor as the tears begin to roll down his cheeks.  They’re all going to die.  Tsukikage, Hikage, Kurosaki, Selena, Dennis, Gongenzaka, Sawatari.

Reira.  Yuya.

“Father, please, there has to be another way, please.  I — I’ll testify to anything you want me to testify to in my trial, please, call off the bombs, please —”

“It’s unfortunate that you were tempted to disloyalty,” Leo says with a deep sigh.  “But we must cut this tumor off at the root.”

Reiji slumps, unable to do anything but cry, but fall apart to pieces in front of the one perosn he promised he would never fall apart in front of ever again.  They’re all going to die, everyone is going to die, and there is nothing he can do, he’s helpless to stop it — 

A sizzling sound echoes on the other side of the door.  An electrical pop sounds, and suddenly, the doors shoot open.  Leo’s face finally changes, as he leaps to his feet, eyes narrowing while his hand drops to his side for a blaster.

“Don’t move!”

Yuya’s voice cuts through the room, and it’s as though Reiji fills up with light.  Yuya’s hands shake slightly where he grips his blaster, his face white as he advances into the room.  His eyes flicker just briefly to Reiji, and relief crashes into his eyes.  He stays looking determined, however, keeping his gaze trained on Leo once he’s noted Reiji’s position.

Leo’s eyes narrow, and his lips curl.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised someone came,” he says, holding his hands at his sides.  

Yuya jerks the barrel of his blaster at Leo.

“Keep your hands up, away from your blaster.”

Leo lifts his hands, but only halfway.  He looks disgusted.  Yuya edges towards Reiji.  He keeps one hand with the blaster pointed at Leo while he bends down, gripping Reiji under the arm and helping him to his feet.  He pushes on the button on his shackles, releasing them.  Reiji quickly brings his hands forward.

“I’m taking him back,” Yuya says, holding tightly to Reiji’s hand.

More tears burst into the corners of Reiji’s eyes, but these are from a different source.  He twines his hand tightly into Yuya’s, clinging to him like a lifeline.

“You must know the bomb is already on its way.  You will survive in here, but if you both leave, you’ll die,” Leo says, shaking his head.  “There’s no possible way to evacuate before it strikes.  You’ll be caught up in the explosion if you try to take off.  Stay here and survive, and face trial.”

Reiji feels his confidence returning, flooding back into him from Yuya’s hand in his.

“I will die with my team,” he says, “or I will live with them.”

Yuya’s hand squeezes his hard.  He backs them out of the room, then — the minute they’re through, Yuya quickly turns his blaster and shoots the door panel, making the doors slam shut once again.

Still clinging to Reiji’s hand, he runs.  And Reiji runs with him, his heart racing in his ears, refusing to let go of him for even a moment.  They burst down the stairs, into the lobby, and Yuya fires a few more warning shots through the lobby to prevent any soldiers from coming after them.  They won’t come, of course, not once they’ve burst through the sliding doors and back out into the radiating heat outside.  They know the bomb is coming.  They won’t try to follow into death.

“Yuya,” Reiji gasps, yanking him to a stop once they’re outside. “Yuya!  The warhead.  We have to find a way to divert it, or to evacuate —”

“There’s a ship!” Yuya gasps.  “I left Reira in it!  We might be able to make it!  The others are already in atmosphere and they’re trying to evacuate the city!”

Not enough, Reiji thinks, his heart in his throat.  From the ridge where the Embassy sits, he can see Synchron’s capital city — he can see the streams of vehicles, lines and lines of them in a standstill as they try to escape the coming doom.  The sky glitters with speeders, almost running into each other as they try to make their way off planet, or at least as far away from the city and the range of the warhead as possible. 

His eyes lift up to the sky, and his heart goes into his throat.  He can see it — just a streak, a glowing white light parting the clouds, falling closer and closer towards them.

They can’t make it.

They won’t make it.

He knows Yuya knows it too, his hand dragging on his and trying to run him towards the speeder waiting at the very edge of the ridge.  Yuya’s hand is sweaty, there are tears in his eyes — he knows.  

They’ve failed.  It’s over.  There’s no way, even, to stop the launch sequence now.  It’s already going to fall.  Their attempt to resist was met with what Reiji always feared — total annihilation.

Will someone else continue to fight after this, he wonders, his mind drawing far away from his body.  Will any other rebel dare to stand against the navy after such a display of power?  In the end, have their actions only doomed the entire galaxy to an eternity of imperial rule?

“Reiji!” Yuya cries, trying to drag him into the speeder.  “Reiji, please, we have to try.”

Reiji comes back to himself.  He smiles, reaching for Yuya, and pulling him into him in a tight hug.  Yuya freezes for a moment.  Then his body gives out.  He slumps into Reiji’s arms, as the two of them slide to the ground, clinging to each other.

“Thank you, for coming for me,” he whispers into Yuya’s ear.

Yuya’s tears stain his shoulder.  The blaster slides out of his hand so he can grip tightly to Reiji, hands digging into his back.

“You would have come for me, too.”

The world is crashing down around them, but Reiji closes his eyes, and tucks his face into Yuya’s hair, and breathes deep, engraving the feeling of Yuya in his arms.  If this is how it ends — if this is how the world ends, then he thinks...he thinks he can live with that.

His eyes fly open when Yuya gasps in his ear.  They pull apart just a bit as Reiji fumbles to see what Yuya is staring at — his mouth hangs open, eyes are wide.

“Oh god,” he gasps, and Reiji’s eyes finally fall on what Yuya is staring at.

Reira stands at the very edge of the ridge with her hands pushed in the air over her head.  Her entire body is encased in the light teal haze of her psychic powers, crackling and sparking with small bursts of electrical light.  Her body trembles as though she’s holding a thousand pounds — and she is, Reiji realizes with shock.

The bomb is frozen in the air, glowing a bright blue.

“Reira!” Yuya cries, scrambling to his feet.  He and Reiji bolt for her at the same time.  Yuya throws one arm around her, and Reiji does the same, the pair of them holding her away from falling.

Electricity shoots through them both — Reiji screams as his mind whites out from the sheer pain of it.  Yuya’s screams blend with his own — but neither of them let go.

“Reira!” Yuya screams.  “You don’t have to — do this!”

Reira opens her mouth, and a wild, desperate cry rips out of her throat.

I DON’T WANT THIS!

“Reira, you could die!” Yuya screams.

I WANT US TO STAY TOGETHER!

Reira gasps for air — lightning courses through Reiji’s entire body.  But he clings to Reira anyway, as he feels an explosion of wind bursting out from Reira’s body, the gravity around her pinching inwards and squeezing against his lungs.  Blood trickles from Reira’s nose.  Her hands do not drop.  The screaming whir of electricity roils through her body and into Reiji and Yuya, and they hang on.

I!

WON’T!

LET!

US!

DIE!

Another scream, this time filled with utter rage and determination, rips out of Reira’s throat.  The storm within her expands, spreads between her and Reiji and Yuya, and for one, brilliant, blinding moment, Reiji feels as though they are a single organism, as though there is not separation between the three of them or the bomb in the sky.

The bomb in their minds sparks.  And then, in the air, the warhead trembles.  The light flees from it.

And it falls.

Reiji and Yuya snap back to themselves, and Reiji gasps as Reira slumps into their arms.  He clings to her as she falls backwards into their grip, his eyes fixed on the bomb.  The rocket falls, twisting sideways and limp, down towards the city.

It crashes, hard, somewhere between the buildings, somewhere out of sight, and Reiji’s breath catches, waiting for the rain of fire and destruction to rain down on them.

But nothing happens.  Nothing, save for a plume of dirt and dust rising up from the place where the bomb fell.  

Reiji lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.  His eyes snap to Reira’s.  Yuya looks up at him, his face stained with tears and dirt, but he smiles — oh, god, it is the most beautiful thing Reiji has ever seen.

“She’s okay,” he whispers.  “She’s just asleep.”

“The bomb,” Reiji gasps.  “She was — from this far away — she disarmed it.”

Yuya reaches over Reira with his free hand, grabs Reiji by the back of the neck, and kisses him so hard that Reiji thinks he will never breathe again.

*

Selena is already very, very drunk.  Sawatari isn’t much better, egging her on to take another shot.  Yuya can’t help but giggle, having had a few drinks himself.  Reiji rolls his eyes when he sees the flush in Yuya’s cheeks, but he smiles as he takes a seat beside him.

“You know we still have work to do tomorrow, don’t you?” he says.  “I won’t be accepting ‘hangover’ as a sick excuse from anyone.”

“We almost died,” Yuya says, taking another swig of his drink.  “Let us party just a little.  In the celebration of not-dying.

Reiji smiles at that, and Yuya’s just tipsy enough to be sappy, flopping onto Reiji’s shoulder when Reiji sits down next to him.

“You have the prettiest smile in the galaxy,” he says.

Reiji chuckles as he snakes an arm around Yuya.

“I believe that award actually belongs to you.”

“Awww.”

They sit quietly then, letting the music and the cheering and the people dancing on tables fill in the spaces between them.

“How’s Reira?” Yuya asks.

“Still sleeping,” Reiji says.  “But she woke up long enough to talk to me for a while. She says she feels all right.  Just sleepy.”

Yuya nods against Reiji’s shoulder.  He’s glad.  The last time he saw Reira use her powers, she went completely unconscious for almost a whole day.  But this time...even though she’d used them for something so big...she seemed to be all right.  He slides his hand into Reiji’s, and Reiji pulls Yuya’s hand into his lap.

“It won’t be over,” Reiji says quietly.  “Especially now that they know just what Reira...what psychics...can do.”

Yuya nods.  But he sighs, and closes his eyes.

“I know,” he says.  “But...I think we’re going to be okay.  I’m not sure why, but...I have a good feeling.  About this.  And about us.”

Reiji’s eyes soften when Yuya glances up at him, and Yuya smiles.  Reiji kisses him on the head, and holds him a little closer.

“I think,” he says, “that I have a good feeling about us, too.”

[determination-and-familiars]

He’s not a muse on this blog, but Have some Roulxs Kaard headcanons.

Decided to post them rather than just keeping them to myself and never doing anything with them.

Going on how he acts I would say he was an only child and possibly spoiled. because of some meme videos I have a need for him to oddly love mac and cheese. I can see him as not really Pan, but more, attracted to those who think he's the best. He's like Blue-Mettaton. He and Mettaton would probably get into a cat fight over who's the best. but not actually fight each other, Mettaton would have his employee or one of his fans fight, while Rouxls would probably have either K.round fight for him again, or he'd have various rudinn fight for him.

He will someday just adopt Lancer because he hates how the King treats him. so one day he's just going to son-steal him "my son now not yours"

He doesn't understand why no one likes his puzzles he thinks they're top quality

He doesn't understand how dresses are a "girl clothing" he thinks they're great. he thinks everyone should wear one at least once a week. Darkner World Dress Day. he wants that to be a thing

Whenever he enters by that beam of light, its not actually the light and sound of him entering. he can't teleport. he has the sound and lighting rigged and he just runs in fast to make an entrance because he's very Extra

The only reason he talks like he's in a Shakespeare play is because he thinks it makes him sound smarter than anyone else

He will practice speeches in front of a mirror and hopes to god no one knows he needs to practice things before saying them.He pretends to hate memes claiming they are beneath him. he will literally laugh at any meme when alone

He's the type to sing in the shower

He will cry at an emotional scene in a disney movie don't test him

Don't ever let him discover Instagram. Ever. E V E R

He will never tell a soul, but he secretly misses watching Seam and Jevil's magician and jester performances. If an audience member was asked to participate, he never seemed to be interested but secretly wanted them to for some reason still pick him to take part.

He has the worst bed-head hair in the morning and will do everything in his power to not let anyone find out.

really. he goes through like 5 de-tangle bottles a day

He would like anime. his favorite would probably be magical girl He plays it cool but he's secretly really happy when someone chooses to go into his shop rather than someone else's.  He acts like it's no big deal but he's just so so happy after someone wanted his stuff. Imagine this big loser dork having this happy little grin on after someone leaves having bought something.

On some rare occasions he will drop the Shakespearean and talk normally but only ever around those he's particularly close with such as Lancer or the one Rudinn he gets close to The quickest way to get Rouxls to hate you is to harm Lancer. He pretends to be annoyed at being called "Lesser Dad" but he's actually completely fine with it. Rouxls is a cuddler. he might pretend to be only tolerating it but he will always hug Lancer back and if his Rudinn coils around him, he will always hug back. Rouxls has been known to flip Spade King off when his back is turned. He's almost been caught a time or two. He makes sure anyone locked in the prisons isn't forgotten and gets fed. When bringing food to the former three other kings he'll give a quiet apology as he leaves. While he doesn't need it, Rouxls sleeps best to the sound of rain He likes it when someone brushes his hair but he also tends to keep this a secret. He has a secret stash of plushies shhh don't tell anyone He's "secretly" afraid of heights He would absolutely be on TikTok When alone he might listen to music, sing along and dance. if caught he would probably startle-trip and then make up some excuse that he wasn't just doing exactly what he was doing He likes to flirt with the rudinn who's extremely gay for him. He finds the flustered stutter adorable Rouxls misses how fun and lively the Card Castle used to be with all four kings in charge If Lancer can't sleep or has a bad dream he'll let him stay with him for the rest of the night. His adoration for the child and fear of what Spade would do to the kid is the only thing that keeps him from leaving the Castle while it's only ruled by Spade. 

[killjoy-karrot-kake]

ARC V Anniversary Day 3: Favourite Minor Character

Ok, Tsukikage. Definitely Tsukikage.

When I first saw Tsukikage, I’ll admit I didn’t think much of him. Like he and Hikage were interesting additions to the show. And let me tell you, I was NOT expecting there to be ninjas in ARC V. But, I don’t know he just seemed a little... outlawed? Is that the word I’m looking for? Underrepresented?  He wasn’t really given enough credit to his name, he kinda just appeared, snatched Yuzu and Selena, fought some Obelisk Force and BAM Lancer. He just was underappreciated in comparison to the other Lancers. In fact he still is one of the least talked about characters of the show.

During the Synchro Dimension arc I think was when it really struck me that he was one of my favourite characters. And seeing a ninja on a D-Wheel literally made me so happy. I don’t know, he just has this really honorable and dedicated personality, as well as a cool character design. I must admit though, my first thought was that he was from Mortal Combat. Tsukikage just needs more love and appreciation I think, and to stop being represented as Reiji’s errand boy. He has so much more potential.

But yeah, I think he’s cool so he’s my favourite minor. :3

[dexcidium]

FATE MUSES ROLE CALL

Canon Characters:

Name: Male FGO Protagonist (Gudao Shimazaki)

Blog: @master-chaldeas​

Status: Active [Semi-Hiatus]

Description: The character whose eyes you see through when you’re playing FGO. Probably the best fucking master in the Fate series (because game plot, of course) due to his overwhelming ability to be a really good friend. Best power ever. He’s been through some tough shit in canon. And though never deeply explored, there are certain traits and characteristics that are apparent enough to make the FGO protagonist their own person. And I intend to bring about those sort of traits, add my own little spins. Filling in the blanks as I go along. While never really intriguing from a narrative stand point due to Gudao’s function being ultimately the lens in which the player sees through, I believe exploring his psyche as an average person in this fucked up mages’ world is quite the interesting journey. Sides’ RPing the daily life in Chaldea is fun.

Name: Kintoki Sakata

Class: Berserker, Rider

Blog: @motherfuckinggoldenboy​

Status: Inactive

Description: My first tumblr muse. My boi. My son. I love him. The son of the Thunder God Raijin, and one of the four heavenly kings of Minamoto no Raikou. Basically, he’s your classic Shonen hero archetype. And rightfully so as he is Japan’s most famous hero. When it comes to kids, of course. In FGO, he may be a giant fucking meme but he is quite frankly, probably one of your most reliable bros. He’s a good guy who’ll never betray you. And while he may act and seem stupid, he fully understands everything and has got his own sense of heroism. He basically represents every classic Shonen hero protagonist ever. Not those shitty new age ones from light novels. Kintoki is a good boy.

Name: Yan Qing

Class: Assassin

Blog: @theprodigalstar

Status: Inactive

Description: The Shinjuku Assassin.... a pupper. I haven’t actually read the entirety of Outlaws of the Marsh. But he is a good boy. Yan Qing is someone who has a lot of trust issues, and is pretty fucked up in the head. Most likely has survivor’s guilt. I honestly don’t have much to say about him besides I have fun RPing as a sadistic, shirtless bishie who tries way too hard to be a bad guy. He’s actually pretty decent as a person.

Name: Toshizou Hijikata

Class: Berserker

Blog: @shinesengumida

Status: Inactive

Description: I have a bias to the Shinsengumi thanks to Gintama. And when I found out my boy would be in FGO, I was excited. And they did him justice. While not exactly the most powerful servant, and is actually pretty weak, his whole concept of ‘I AM THE SHINSENGUMI’ is pretty kick ass. While I would love to see him in a more sane fashion in the future, I’m happy with him. Now all we’re missing is a couple more key members in the Shinsengumi and we can fight the Paladins and the KotR.

Original Characters:

Name: Raijin {Face Claim: Kazama Chikage, Hakouki}

Class: Archer, Rider, Berserker

Blog: @kamiikazuchi-no-mai

Status: Never Launched

Description: Kintoki’s daddy. This man, in fate canon impregnated Kintoki’s mother with a clap of thunder while he was a dragon. He didn’t even hit it and quit it like Zeus did it was literally just: ‘boom: pregnant’. Anyway, he’s pretty cool. He’s constantly fighting with his brother, Fuujin. He tried to fight buddha once. That didn’t end up going well. Still kicked ass though. DID I MENTION HIS NP IS A MOTHERFUCKING DRUM SOLO!?!?!??!?!

Name: Bertrand Du Guesclin {Face Claim: Hori Masayuki, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun}

Class: Rider, Saber, Lancer

Blog: @duguescllinn

Status: Semi-Active

Description: Let’s get this out of the way: I hate white knights as a character trope. Proto!Arthur is someone I cannot stand. But I wanted a knight anyway. And I refused to use any of the KotR. So I literally picked out this guy from some random list on the internet and BOOM. He clicked with me right away. Bertrand Du Guesclin is your classic underdog story. He went from being a neglected child of minor nobility to perhaps the greatest Knight that historical France ever produced. As well as being the entire French Army’s Constable -- a rank reserved for those of high nobility. But Thankfully, Charles V was smart enough to realise that this motherfucker was the best. Fuck being a bishie. This motherfucker was ugly and short as shit but he collectively said fuck you to everyone and became the very fucking best. Even had a hot wife. His heart was buried with his wife, while his body was buried amongst the kings of France. That’s mad street cred for that to even happen. No bullshit magic sword, no dumbass prophecy. He let his skill ad prowess do the talking. 

Name: Gilles Garnier [The Legend of the Werewolf] {Face Claim: The Captain, Hellsing}

Class: Berserker, Assassin, Lancer

Blog: No Blog

Status: Only RP’d in Discord

Description: HEY APPARENTLY EVER GILLES I’VE LOOKED UP IS A CHILD MURDERER. Anyway, I wanted a werewolf. So I’m like “why not all of them into one guy”. And boom. Garnier popped up constantly. Lycanism has popped up all over he world, but was most prominent in France in the middle ages with there being around 12,000 cases of werewolf trials. Anyway, this guy made a deal with the devil to provide fro his wife, and resorted to cannibalism because of famine. He’s pretty nuts, believing that he was innocent for killing several kids and eating them. ...And then I pretty much shoved the entirety of the Werewolf myth which includes that dude Zeus turned into a wolf, Lycanism, skin walkers, etc. I liked the hollywood interpretations of the weakness to silver since they have no defined weakness. Not even to holy weapons in myth/history. So fuck yeah, more doggos. This one will eat you though.

[blueeyeswhitegarden]

Day 21: League of Dueling Seriously @arcvmonth

I really like the Lancers. They're a group of fun and likable characters, but I wanted to focus on Reiji for this prompt. I really like his design. I love his long red scarf. It's so ridiculous that it comes back around to being cool. It's some peak YGO fashion. His deck is really cool. It has some great monster designs and I've been using it a lot in Duel Links. I tend to favor power decks, so being able to easily summon something like D/D/D Dragonbane King Beowulf on the first turn can be really helpful. He's also the second Arc V character that I was able to fully level up in Duel Links.

I also think he's pretty underrated among the fanbase. I think at least part of that is because it's easy to misread his character. It's easy to see his calm, distant demeanor as being cold, heartless and basically making him to be a bigger jerk than he is. That was the case with me at least when I was watching the series as it was airing. It took me a long time to like Reiji, especially after his second duel with Yuya where he was being really harsh in trying to push him. But he does care about other people. He spent years preparing to fight against Academia and doing whatever he could to protect Standard. That doesn't mean that everything he did was right, but that he wasn't this heartless person either. Unlike the vast majority of the cast, Reiji isn’t openly emotional. He keeps his feelings close to the chest, focused on what he needed to do instead of his own feelings. This was most likely the result of finding out his father's plan three years prior to the start of the series. Thirteen year old Reiji was a lot more emotional, demanding answers from Leo, while sixteen year old Reiji is more calm, collected and reserved. Finding out that his father abandoned him and his mother to effectively start a war forced Reiji to grow up too fast. There are moments where his feelings break through that demeanor, such as when he was so angry hearing Yuto's recount of what Academia did to Heartland, so he clearly was upset over what his father had done on top of abandoning him and his mother.

I also like Reiji as a rival. He felt pretty refreshing when he wasn't a traditional rival or had a traditional kind of rivalry with Yuya. Not that those are necessarily bad things. Traditional rivals and rivalries can be really solid, but I think I was a bit tired of that format after the past few series. It helped to make him stand out and he's my second favorite rival in the franchise next to Jack. I like that both Yuya and Reiji are polar opposites in regards to how they handle their emotions. They both lost their fathers, even if the circumstances were quite different since Yusho didn't intend to abandon his family like Leo did, and that had a huge impact on both of them. Reiji trying to push Yuya into becoming a stronger duelist was also a different take on how rivalries typically go, even if it did seem like pushing Yuya too hard and harshly after the Battle Royal.

I think that it was smart choice to have Reiji duel sparingly for the first two seasons. Admittedly, I'm sure that it was at least partly due to Yoshimasa Hosoya's busy schedule, but I think it still worked out in their favor. Reiji is easily the strongest duelist in the cast with being able to summon Fusion, Synchro, Xyz and Pendulum monsters relatively easy. But he never felt overhyped to me like I think some past and future rivals kind of fall into. He didn't come off as broken or overpowered to the point where I wondered why he didn't just face Academia all by himself. It also fit with his personality. Reiji doesn't jump straight into battle. He observes from the sidelines, figures out the best strategy to go with based on what they know and only take direct action when he deems necessary. Plus, I figured that he wouldn't lose to anyone who wasn't Yuya and maybe Leo, so that would limit how much tension they could get from his duels. While that did limit how much dueling he could do prior to getting to Academia, I thought that it still worked well and he still had some good moments in Synchro even before getting to duel Roger like calling out the City Council and having some bonding moments with Reira.

I also really like his friendship with Yuya. It felt like it was based on mutual respect and was pretty believable. While Yuya was understandably upset with Reiji for a good chuck of the Synchro arc, Tsukikage told him that he wouldn't be working with Reiji if he didn't care for his allies. Afterwards, Yuya stared to call Reiji by his first name instead of Akaba Reiji, which I think meant he didn't see Reiji in the same way anymore. I don't think he could have really argued with Tsukikage when the evidence that Reiji was still keeping an eye on the defeated Lancers was right in front of him. At the end of the arc, Yuya stood up for Reiji, knowing that he wasn't the kind of person that Roger was trying to paint him as after revealing his father was the Professor. And when they confronted Leo at Academia, Reiji returned the favor by standing up for Yuya. After seeing Yuya's duels in the Synchro Dimension, he believed in his skills and chose to help Yuya instead of helping his father. It was a pretty nice moment and I think having a less antagonistic rivalry helped to make that development more believable.

I really loved Reiji's reactions to finally meeting with Leo again. Even after he learned the truth about Leo's plans and that Yuya is Zarc's reincarnation, Reiji still stood up for Yuya, called him his friend and tried to help him even with Zarc trying to take over Yuya’s soul. Of course Reiji wouldn't choose to work with his father after all they've went through, but Leo could easily counter Reiji's strategies. Even when his plans didn't go smoothly or there were unexpected problems in the past, Reiji was usually able to keep calm, collected and figure out where to go from there But his calm demeanor was starting to fade here with Leo calling him out for being too honest, straight forward and basically predictable. Reiji spent years planning this confrontation and had more than enough reason to be confident in both his and Yuya's skills, so he was taken aback by Leo calling him out like that. This moment wouldn't have been nearly as impactful as it was if Reiji had struggled against more opponents throughout the series. Reiji is easily one of my favorite characters of the series, as well as one of my favorite rivals in the franchise, and I don't think he gets enough attention from the fanbase.