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allisluv · 2 months ago

Text

COMING CLEAN

chapter nine — the roof

pairing: finnick odair x fem!oc

content warnings: violence and the “who did this to you” trope. mentions of forced prostitution and selective mutism. lmk if i missed any!

word count: 3.2k

previous chapter — next chapter

Finnick nearly makes it out of the dining room without getting dragged into another one of his escort's pointless conversations.

Nearly.

"Finnick!" Cordelia calls, voice shrill and sharp as she struggles to keep up with him. He slows to a walk and presses the button for the glass elevator. Her chest heaves with heavy breaths as she moves to stand in front of him, hands on the plush of her hips. "Where are you going?"

Finnick crosses his arms over the front of his training outfit and stares straight ahead. "I'm going to see Dahlia.". She scoffs. "Do you have a problem with that, Cordelia?"

The elevator doors slide open. Cordelia juts her chin out and side-steps him, effectively blocking him from stepping into the lift. "I do, actually. You haven't attempted to practice for your private training session today! The games start in two days, Finnick. Dahlia is ill. You can't keep wasting your time on a lost cause. Dead weight isn't going to get you anywhere in that arena."

Finnick bristles, shouldering his way past Cordelia before he can say something he will come to regret later. He presses the button for floor nine and flips her off before the doors can close. She clings to the string of pearls sitting around her neck, and Finnick takes pride in knowing that she has finally been knocked down a peg or two.

He doesn't allow himself to dwell on the fact that his escort is entitled-- that much he could've figured out himself. Instead, he focuses on the floors whizzing past him at the speed of light and the warmth that floods his chest when he sees Dahlia curled up in a ball on the leather sofa, legs tucked underneath her.

Dahlia doesn't seem to notice him until he hops over the back of the sofa and settles beside her. She flinches, and the movement causes the plate of cinnamon rolls balancing on her knees to go flying. Finnick catches them before they can fall, and he offers her an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

Dahlia shakes her head as if to get rid of the bad thoughts in her head. "It's alright. It's just being here that makes me jumpy, you know?" Finnick hums his agreement and absentmindedly rubs a soothing pattern into the the skin by her shoulder blades. She's too caught up in her thoughts to even register his touch and how much she likes his skin on hers. "I don't know why I said that. I'll shut up now, sorry."

"You don't have to apologise," Finnick answers honestly. "Not to me."

Dahlia tentatively meets his eye. "Really?"

"Really."

Dahlia's tongue darts out to wet the edges of her lips. "Thank you."

Finnick's brows knit together. "For what?"

"For staying with me when you didn't have to. But mostly for being you."

A lump forms in Finnick's throat. He's used to being too much for everyone, so knowing that he doesn't have to dim his light for her makes something ache in his chest. For once in his life, he's lost for words, so he resorts back to the one thing he knows he excels in; flirting. "Are you going soft on me, Dahlia Holloway?"

She hits him with an embroidered pillow from the sofa and ducks her head to hide her smile. He sees it anyway. "Tell anyone and I'll kill you." She stretches her arms behind her head and stands to her feet, padding across the floor. She stops halfway across the room and turns to face him. "I have to get changed. Wait here for me?"

"'Course," Finnick answers, reaching for the remote control on the coffee table. There's not a lot to watch, unless you count the Capitol's propaganda as entertainment. He's flicking through the channels when an interview catches his attention.

Caesar Flickerman sits at a round table with a panel of media personnel. The headline written across the bottom of the screen reads, "Who's a real contender this year?"

"Yes, I think you're right. Johanna Mason is a strong contender. I could easily see her winning the Games this year," Caesar agrees. "But there's one person that I think every other tribute in that arena should be afraid of." He presses a button on a hand-held control and a picture flashes up on the screen behind him. "Dahlia Holloway. Victor of the 67th Hunger Games."

Finnick's finger hovers over the skip button, but something stops him from pressing it. Maybe it's Cordelia's words about her being dead weight. Maybe it's the fact that he's never really been told what exactly went down in Dahlia's games. Maybe it's morbid curiosity. He doesn't know. What he does know is that he keeps watching.

A chorus of agreements break out from the panel of interviewers but a stout man on the far right shakes his head and leans into his microphone. "She's from District Nine, so trust me when I say that I don't think this year's tributes have anything to worry about. She's not a threat."

Finnick quirks a brow.

Some of the interviewers laugh.

Caesar looks at him as if he's grown three heads. "You think that she is not a threat?" he repeats. The man nods. "Gregory, forgive me for being crass, but are you out of your fucking mind?"

Gregory rears back as if he's been slapped across the face.

"The Capitol love her, don't we, ladies and gents?" Caesar prompts. The live audience erupt into cheers. "Do you know why they call her the Angel of Death?" He's met with silence. "Her district partner was killed and something seemed to snap in that pretty little head of hers. That arena was a bloodbath because of her. She killed thirteen tributes, some with her bare hands."

Nova Castor, an interviewer that Finnick recognises from his time spent in the Capitol, chimes in. "Didn't they say that she never fully got her sanity back?" She shuffles through a stack of papers, licks her pointer finger, and reads from a page. "According to an inside source, 'Dahlia is unstable and a danger to others.'"

"That's the rumour," Caesar says.

"Those assholes will say anything to sell a story," Wyatt pipes up as he crosses the room and sits in a velvet armchair. Finnick shuts off the television and Wyatt throws a piece of popcorn into the air before catching it in his mouth. "Don't stop on my account," he says through a mouth full of food.

"I wasn't-- I don't believe any of that!" Finnick insists.

"I know. I just like watching you squirm.”

Finnick scoffs and rolls his shoulders back. "You're a sadist."

"I've been told," Wyatt answers, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. "So, loverboy, what're ya doing here?"

Finnick juts his chin out defiantly and rolls his shoulders back to make himself appear taller than he is. He knows Wyatt isn't preparing for a fight, and neither is he, honestly, but after growing up in a career district, he can't afford to be caught off guard, either. "I don't have to explain myself to you."

Suppressing a laugh, Wyatt holds his hands up in surrender. "Look, I'm trying to be civil here, for Dahlia's sake more than my own. She likes you, and she'd have my head on a pike if I told you to go fuck yourself like I really want to." He straightens up in his chair, yet his ankles stay crossed on the coffee table. "Dahlia's a good girl. She's been through her fair share of trials. So, if you hurt her, you can forget the arena-- it'll be me you'll answer to."

"Is that a threat?" Finnick muses with a grin.

"No. It's a promise."

"Pack it in, will you?" Dahlia snaps as she leans against a marble pillar that separates the living room from the dining room. "If you really have my best interests at heart, you'll stop abusing my fake boyfriend and get your ass up so we can get a move on." He slams the popcorn bowl down onto the coffee table with more force than necessary. "And lose the attitude."

"Yes, ma'am," Wyatt teases, offering her a mock salute.

Dahlia marches towards the glass elevator and presses the button. It opens almost immediately, and Wyatt hops inside, holding the doors open. She glares over her shoulder and arches a sharp brow in Finnick's general direction. "Are you coming or what?"

Like a dog being called by its master, he jumps up from the sofa, slipping and sliding across the wooden floorboards in shoes that clearly have no solid grip on them. He brushes his blonde hair out of his face and clears his throat to fill the silence while the elevator drops down nine floors to the basement, where their private training sessions are to be held.

Despite being earlier than necessary, they are still the last to arrive. Everyone's eyes flit to them and Finnick can feel Dahlia stiffen beside him. Gently, he intertwines their fingers together, offers her a small smile, and tells her that she's safe. "Just focus on me, yeah?"

Dahlia sucks in a deep breath and gives him a rigid, barely there, nod of her head. Her hand grips his like a vice as they venture further into the room. The Careers are analysing their movements, and Dahlia can feel them watching her, which does little to soothe her paranoia.

Thankfully, her distraction comes in the form of an old woman with a gummy smile and thinning grey hair. Finnick leans down and presses a chaste kiss to her cheek as a way of greeting, and the woman grabs Dahlia by the hand. Her grip is gentle but she still has to supress a wince; she's not used to being touched so much.

"You must be Mags," Dahlia smiles softly. "I'm Dahlia."

Mags raises her hand and spells something out with her fingers.

Finnick squeezes Dahlia's hand to get her attention. "She had a stroke a decade ago, so she uses sign language to communicate."

"Well, that's not a problem," Dahlia grins, loosening her hold on Finnick's hand and signing a few words to Mags. "I haven't signed in years, so I might be a bit slower than what you're used to, I'm sorry."

For the first time in years, Mags' face lights up like a Christmas tree. She waves Dahlia's apology off and loops her arm through hers, leading her to sit down in the waiting area. Cashmere offers her a small smile as she sits down, and it eases her nerves ever so slightly. Mags ropes her into a conversation and as the tributes are called in one by one, she finds herself relaxing.

Mags strokes Dahlia's hair before she's beckoned into the training facility.

Finnick barely gives the door a chance to close behind Mags before he asks, "How do you know how to sign?"

Dahlia draws her bottom lip between her teeth and drops her voice an octave so no one else can eavesdrop. Finnick leans in close so he can hear her. "My sister, Ivy, she doesn't speak, so we had to learn other ways to talk to her."

"Is she an Avox?" Finnick wonders. Dahlia flinches and he immediately backtracks. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry."

She shakes her head. "You don't have to apologise. Ivy hasn't spoke for the better part of eight years, but she's not an Avox. She just... doesn't speak. Or won't, I guess." Her tongue darts out to wet the edges of her lips. "She saw my mom and dad die," she admits quietly. "She hasn't spoke since. They say it's a trauma response or something. Just another thing I fucked up," she laughs bitterly.

Finnick angles his head to meet her eye. "It's not your fault." He gently reaches out and tilts her chin up with his pointer finger and thumb. "You can't blame yourself for that, you hear me? I'm sure Ivy doesn't blame you, either."

Dahlia opens her mouth to ask him how he knows that for sure, when his name is called over the speakers. "Good luck," she smiles softly. "I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

Finnick sneaks a quick kiss onto her cheek and throws a wink over his shoulder on his way out of the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Johanna Mason throws herself into the free seat on Dahlia's right. "Why weren't you in training for the first day? I was looking for you," she says, running a hand through her short red and black hair.

"I haven't seen you in the better part of a year and the first thing you want to do is interrogate me?"

Johanna points her finger in Dahlia's face and makes a circular motion. "Stop deflecting. Where were you?"

Dahlia tongues the inside of her cheek. She often forgets that Johanna can read her like a book; they are best friends, after all. Okay, best friends that haven't seen each other in months, but her point still stands. "I wasn't feeling well."

Johanna cocks her head to one side, narrowed eyes surveying her face for any sign that she may be lying. Dahlia can almost see the lightbulb appearing over her head. "Don't tell me you let that man get you knocked up already."

Dahlia's jaw drops and she socks Johanna in the arm. "You fucking bitch!"

Johanna throws her head back in a laugh that borders on psychotic. "You are so easy to rile up."

As the tributes from district five and six are called in, Johanna keeps her thoroughly entertained by detailing the latest drama from her town back in district seven. The announcer calls her name over the speaker and she ruffles Dahlia's hair, telling her how they must catch up before they are sent to their imminent deaths.

Cecelia and Woof from eight disappear through the door and then it's Wyatt's time to shine. She wishes him good luck and focuses on steadying her breathing. Her tremors are back, and there's a part of her that knows they won't go away until she's calmed back down again, so there's not a chance in hell that they'll be gone by the time she stands in front of the Game makers.

"Dahlia Holloway."

Her heart hammers hard against the sleek fabric of her training outfit as she pulls the door open, ignoring the way the hinges creak in protest. This section of the basement is more modern, with high ceilings and, like the other training centre, an apartment that looks down over the gym.

She can feel Plutarch tracking her every move with his eyes, almost as if he's challenging her, seeing if she still has what it takes to keep Katniss safe in the arena. An array of weapons sit on a fold-away table and her lithe fingers skim the handles of the sickles. She picks one up and slices it through the air, trying to get back into the swing of things again.

Her panic makes her dizzy, but she refuses to let that fear show. Instead, she struts towards a box that can make holograms appear. She toys with the settings for a minute or two, two sickles that she chose hanging limply by her side.

The lights inside of the simulation booth must be sensitive to motion because the second Dahlia steps inside, the overhead lights dim, plunging her into complete and utter darkness before gold strip lights kick into action. She has barely enough time to tighten her grip on the sickle before a bright-orange hologram charges at her with a sword aimed straight for her heart.

Dahlia drops her weight to the ground, swiping her weapon through the air and separating the hologram's ankle from its body. She plunges her sickle into its chest and watches as it dissolves into tiny orange cubes.

Another hologram appears out of thin air, pulling back the string of it's bow and letting an arrow go. Dahlia slices the arrow in half, splitting it down the middle and throwing one of the sickles. It flies through the air and lodges itself into the hologram's neck.

As she knocks down holograms like bowling balls, she slowly relaxes into the familiarity of it all; the feeling of the sickle grounding her, the handle digging into her hand and leaving the imprint of the Capitol seal in her palm. Her hair grows damp with sweat, and by the time the holograms disappear for the final time, she's managed to kill thirty-three of them in total.

Dahlia drops the sickles and keels over, hands bracing her knees as she tries to catch her breath. Once she's sure her stomach isn't going to empty its contents all over the floor, she stands up tall and walks out of the simulation booth.

Plutarch meets her eye across the room and Dahlia tilts her head higher, silently challenging him to tell her that she's not good enough after a performance like that.

A smile stretches across his face, and he nods his head once.

Dahlia turns on her heel and leaves.

˚＊✿❀༓❀✿＊˚

Dahlia is called out on a last-minute "business meeting" in the Capitol and does not return home until three o'clock the next morning.

She avoids the ninth floor altogether and heads straight for the roof. As the elevator doors part on the rooftop, she flings her stilettos to one side and walks towards the ledge, barefoot, despite the fact that temperatures are likely below zero.

Her exhaling breaths come out in a cloud of cold air as she sits on the ledge, legs dangling off the side. The elevator doors beep again, announcing someone's presence, but she can't be bothered to see who it is. "What do you want, Finnick?"

He hoists himself up and sits on the ledge beside her. "How did you know it was me?"

"You always seem to be following me around."

He chuckles under his breath and it makes her smile. "You got a ten in your training."

"What did you get?" Dahlia wonders aloud.

"Eleven." He pauses. "You weren't gonna jump, were you?"

Dahlia shakes her head softly. "No, Finn, I wasn't going to jump. I just wanted to go somewhere where I wouldn't be interrogated." His brows knit together in confusion and she finally looks at him. "I was with a client. Malaki always waits up to make sure I get home alright."

Finnick keeps his hand in Dahlia's peripheral vision when he reaches up and brushes his thumb over the bruise blossoming across the apple of her cheek. "What's his name? The client?" Dahlia drops her gaze and he tilts her chin up with his pointer finger. "Give me a name."

She quirks a sharp brow. "Why? What are you going to do? Kill him?"

Finnick shrugs non-committedly. "If you want me to." She smiles sadly and he knows what that look means. There's nothing anyone can do, even you. He threads his fingers through his golden locks in frustration. "I hate seeing you hurt."

Dahlia scoffs. "Don't tell me you're growing fond of me."

Finnick knocks his shoulder into hers. "And so what if I am?"

"I don't think that's a good idea. People I love have a tendency to get hurt."

"So, you love me now?" he teases.

Dahlia throws her head back in a laugh. "Watch it. I'll push you off if you keep it up."

"No, you won't."

"What makes you so sure of that?”

"Because you love me."

#grace talks🐚🌷#the hunger games #coming clean wp #finnick odair x oc #dahlia holloway #finnick odair x you #finnick odair x reader #finnick odair #headcanons #thg #thgs

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dangans-ur-ronpas · 4 months ago

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Chapter 24

why did this chapter kick my ass?? damn!!!

SEE HERE FOR GENERAL WARNINGS AND FIC SUMMARY

Some pre-chapter notes:

soz for the unexpected delay i was moving + starting a new job + lost my grip on byakuya's slippery psyche

playing with my own headcanons for hiro and his backstory actually. bc. well. the original just is not very good at all now is it

tyyy @digitaldollsworld as always!!

Content warning tags: blood, mention of razor (not in intentional self-harm context), minor injury, nausea, panic attack, toxic obsessive stalker Toko, insecurity, mentions of self-starving

< previous - from start - next >

Byakuya drops his straight razor, and it splashes into the basin of his sink. Followed by a few droplets, hot and ruby-bright as it tracks down his jaw, vanishing almost instantly upon contact with the water.

For a moment, he doesn’t move, frozen, one hand still half-raised to his face, still curved in that loose grip. Then he braces his hands against the porcelain edge, knuckles tensing as he tries to keep them from shaking. The cut on his jaw stings, still slowly welling blood; his razor, silver and distorted, warbles in and out of sight with the water’s ripples, his eyes struggling to track its shape. He makes no move to fish it out of the water.

This was his second attempt at shaving. The evidence of his first attempt still throbs on the opposite cheek, near his ear. Despite moving glacially slow, other hand pulling the skin as taut and still as he could manage, the hard edge of the sink digging into his hip as he leaned as close to the mirror as he could, it was still proving to be a fruitless effort. The elegant blade that his mother’s family had gifted him, that he had been using since he became heir, was now simply too large and awkward for him to use. A task that should have been easy after all of Pennyworth’s guidance was now fraught with pointless danger.

…Maybe it’s not worth the trouble, he thinks, numbly. But the hollow, shattered defeatism that comes with the thought is so unfamiliar that it makes him grit his teeth, and then reach slowly into the tepid water to pull the razor out. His stubble was patchy already, especially near his jawline, and any more delay would almost certainly warrant someone commenting on it - maybe Hagakure, who couldn’t seem to keep anything to himself, or Celeste, who would delight in pointing it out while masking it as polite concern - but, at the rate he was going, he was going to draw more attention with a bloodied face.

His fingers scrape the basin, searching at a glacial pace until the edge of his thumbnail taps against the handle. He draws it out gingerly, shakes off the stray droplets, then wipes the blade with a silk cloth. Drying it carefully, meticulously - as Pennyworth had taught him, ‘it’s as good as useless if it rusts’ - before folding it and replacing it in the cupboard behind his mirror. He dries his face with the towel hanging around his neck, ignoring the way the Turkish cotton scraped against raw skin.

I could always just try again later, he reasoned with himself. Not so much as a surrender as it was a tactical retreat; and the results were bound to be better when he was calmer, more composed. He could still do it - he just needed some time.

And as for anyone who might notice it…

…Well. It wasn’t like he was spending much time around anyone else these days anyways.

—

Even if he wasn’t trying to seek out anyone else’s company, he couldn’t help but take note of their own routines, how they settled into their lives after feeling the world shake around them.

It doesn’t surprise him that Celeste and Yamada have continued on as if nothing had happened at all. Celeste still maintains her airy simulacrum of a mysterious princess, occasionally inviting Byakuya to tea or dinner or a game of Othello, which he declines each time. Yamada, when he wasn’t offering himself up to be bullied and ordered around by her, would be in the newly-opened art room, and Byakuya could occasionally pass by to hear sounds of shuffling paper and the scrape of pens, and the harrowed, heavy breathing of a man possessed.

Ogami and Asahina are similar, returning to their athletic routine, though clearly more affected by the deaths of their classmates. They were attached at the hip before, but now Byakuya never saw one without the other, always in each other’s company, often holding hands - if Ishimaru were here, he might have decried it, ‘No PDA in the hallways!’ in that annoyingly shrill, school-bell voice - once, Byakuya had even overheard the two of them occupying the bathhouse together, when he had passed by with the intention of checking on Alter Ego’s laptop.

(He’d left quickly when he realized what they were doing, leaving the locker unchecked, his face hot and uncomfortable. It was all well and fine for them to cope how they pleased, but couldn’t they have some more decorum about occupying a public space? He was almost beginning to miss Ishimaru.)

…Speaking of Ishimaru. Even Mondo had found something to occupy his time with, these days.

It seemed that after that night with Alter Ego, something had shaken loose inside him, and he was an entirely new person. In some ways, he was even more troublesome than when he was depressed and languishing; loud, piercing, and always appearing when he was least expected, or at least it felt that way to Byakuya. Somehow materializing nearby, demanding to know what you were doing, why you weren’t adhering to some vague, obscure rule that he might’ve made up on the spot. An overgrown hall monitor that acted like every little infraction could mean life or death.

(It was all in the name of protecting the AI, but it was also getting on everyone’s nerves, and it almost made Byakuya regret ever involving himself in the biker’s business in the first place.)

Makoto and Kirigiri were doing whatever it was they were doing. Byakuya rarely saw them, and when he did, he never made any attempt to speak to either of them. It didn’t make much of a difference from his previous dynamic with Kirigiri, but with Makoto, it was almost like a repeat of what had happened just after the first trial. But this time, Makoto never made any attempt to approach him.

Which was perfectly fine by him. Regardless of Makoto’s intentions, his betrayal was unforgivable. There was no reason to associate with him any longer.

And lastly, there was Hagakure.

It’s not clear if the self-proclaimed clairvoyant had given up on Mondo, given the overnight change in personality (at the very least, there was no more need for a suicide watch anytime soon), but he seems to have latched on to Byakuya, for no clear reason. Frequently calling out to him whenever they crossed paths, dogging in his steps like a very determined stray. Chattering incessantly, even when Byakuya refused to deign any of his ridiculous stories with a response, often trying to herd him into the cafeteria so they could “lunch together, bond, maybe share a cup of joe? Even rich guys like joe, right?”

“...Did you mean ‘coffee’,” Byakuya replies in a flat, deadpan tone that was more resigned than irritated, during what must be the dozenth time that Hagakure had intercepted him, and maybe the third time he conceded to the other man’s insistence; if only because Hagakure had been particularly persistent recently, and would probably end up following him and broadcasting to Fukawa or Monokuma or anyone else exactly where Byakuya was seeking refuge, when not in his room.

(Not to mention that he was a little hungry himself, though he could only imagine the kind of common swill someone like Hagakure might consider coffee.)

“Hey man, to-MAY-toes, po-TAY-toes, right?” Hagakure just shrugs, and half-guides, half-pushes Byakuya by the shoulders into the cafeteria.

It’s midday. The place is empty, with even Celeste missing from her favored spot at her table. Hagakure shuffles him into the kitchen, tells him to wash his hands, and then-

-shoves two things at him. One, round, pale brown and still damp, with a slight papery texture beneath the moisture. The other, a piece of smooth, green plastic shaped like a ‘T’, with something silvery running parallel to the top. He skates his thumb lightly over it, and finds the edge of it sharp; a tiny blade.

“Whoa, careful! Don’t hurt yourself!” Hagakure tugs the tool back out of his hand, inspecting his fingers. “Like, come on. I even gave you the vegetable peeler, this is easy mode.”

“...What?”

Hagakure doesn’t explain right away, instead occupied with rolling up his sleeves, tying the brambled mass of his hair back with a strip of white. Arranged on the kitchen counter is a selection of tools, a colorful assortment of vegetables, and a hunk of something dark and pink, occupying the cutting board. There’s already a pot on the stove, and Byakuya watches Hagakure’s hand fiddle with some dark, invisible button across the top of the oven, and a telltale blue flame clicks to life. “We’re making gumbo! And you’re my assistant for the day.” He announces, with the same cadence of a cooking show host. He’s beaming, as if he hadn’t just said something utterly, completely insane.

“...What.”

It’s hard to make out, but he swears Hagakure rolls his eyes at him. Which would be infuriating enough to comment on, if he wasn’t also holding out the aforementioned vegetable peeler out, handle first, towards him. “Gumbo. It’s kinda like, curry I guess? But it’s a lot more soupy.” Apparently not put off by Byakuya’s unresponsiveness, he pushes the peeler into his slack hand. “I mean, I guess I’m not surprised you haven’t tried it. It’s not Japanese, or like…fancy, rich guy food.”

That snaps him out of it. “What,” He repeats, emphatically, with feeling. “Do you think you’re doing?”

“Um, like I said, making gumbo-”

“No, I mean-” Byakuya waves the objects in his hands, and feels only a little ridiculous in doing so. “I’m not- using these.”

Hagakure winces at that. “...No offense, Toga, but, uh…” He hesitates. “It’s…not exactly a good idea to give you a knife right now, you feel me?”

Byakuya can imagine his eyes tracing down his face, to the still-pink line on his jaw from this morning, and feels his face grow even warmer, with nothing to do with the open-flame stove not a meter away from him. “That. Is. Not. The. Point.” He hisses, emphasizing each word. “And - don’t call me that - you said we were here to get coffee.”

He spits these words like they’re poisonous, and Hagakure is still for a moment. He thinks that he’s managed to get his point across, but:

“Aww, Togster…you really did wanna get coffee with me?” Hagakure sounds genuinely touched, one hand pressed to his chest. Byakuya was about two seconds from throwing the stupid root vegetable in his hand against Hagakure’s equally stupid head. “We can have coffee after we make food. Besides, aren’t you sick of the meals we’ve been doing recently? Like I’m not a picky guy, but ramen and bread every day for the past few days is getting kinda…bleh, y’know?”

The worst part of this was that Byakuya agreed with him on that front. Even with his newfound habit of only eating when there was no one else around, or when Alter Ego threatened to stop reading for him until he took a meal, the selection was paltry to begin with and had only grown more unappealing with time.

“Your job is easy,” Hagakure continues, and grabs something hanging off the handle of a nearby oven, and drops it over his face, obscuring his vision for a moment. He jerks backwards in alarm as it settles to hang around his neck, only to realize that it’s an apron - a pale, mint-green thing that’s one size too small, with some still-visible stains splattered across it, and Hagakure had somehow gotten behind him and tied the thing in place already - “You just gotta peel the potatoes, and I just gotta cut everything up. The roux’s already done, so all we gotta do is dump the ingredients in and let it do its thing.”

Byakuya is still reeling a little from being forced (though, there wasn’t much he could’ve done in protest, with both his hands occupied) into an apron. The things in his hands are so unfamiliar to him that they may as well be OOPart pieces in the making.

Besides him, Hagakure was whistling away, chopping meat with the silver blur of a large kitchen knife. Completely oblivious to anything around him; and Byakuya realized, he could leave right now if he wanted, and it wasn’t like the fortune-teller, of all people, could stop him.

He’s about to do just that when the other man looks up, knife stilling. “Something wrong?” He asks, with a tilt of his head. And before Byakuya could explain that, yes, there was something very wrong with this entire situation: “D’you need help?”

“No.” He says automatically, and immediately kicks himself for it.

“Oh, then-?”

“I don’t-” Byakuya says at the same time, and frowns sharply at the interruption. “I. Don’t do this sort of…thing.” It comes out a lot less assertive than he would like, and sounds a lot more pathetic than he means it to be.

“Oh. Well, yeah, I figured.” Hagakure shrugs, as he scoops up the mess of pink on the cutting board with the edge of his knife and drops it into a metal bowl. It lands with a loud, wet slap, and the bowl rings as it shakes against the counter. “No time to learn like the present though, right?”

Byakuya feels his eye twitch. In some ways, talking to Hagakure was more frustrating than negotiating with most white-collar businessmen, and more akin to arguing against a very enthusiastic wall. “I’m not supposed to do this kind of thing,” He tries again. “I’ve never had to prepare my own food in my life.”

It echoes what he told Makoto, that night he dragged Byakuya to the kitchen to prepare him a meal. But this time, it feels much less like a boast, and more like an admission. Like he couldn’t even do this much.

If Hagakure noticed the grimace passing over his face, he made no comment. Instead, he plucks the items out of Byakuya’s hands. “No time to learn like the present, my man.” He twirls the peeler between his fingers, and it spins, a foggy green circle. “It’s like a pattern, you pull the peeler down, turn it again, and repeat.” He demonstrates, hands moving quickly, with practiced ease. “Don’t worry if you miss anything. We don’t need it to be super clean, we just need most of the skin off.”

And he offers the peeler back to Byakuya, a gleam of white teeth on his face. Deceptively kind, poisonously pleasant. “Think you can handle that?”

Byakuya shoves his hand away, his patience thinning to a thread. “Take the hint,” He snaps, reaching behind himself to try and undo the knot. “I’m not doing this.”

“What? But it’s easy!”

“I don’t care,” He yanks at the ties, feels them come no closer to being loosened, and feels his face reddening with frustration, humiliation. He needs to leave, now. “I’m leaving.”

“Aw, Toga, come on-”

Byakuya reaches for the knife, left abandoned on the cutting board, and there’s a clatter as Hagakure backs himself against the ovens. “O-okay, okay, sure! Sure, jesus, okay!”

Byakuya rolls his eyes at the overreaction, already tuning him out, then starts awkwardly maneuvering the knife to try and cut the apron off. Arms twisting awkwardly to catch the bladed edge against the side of the knot. It’s not easy - he could swear, the blade seemed sharp enough when Hagakure was using it to dice meat, but now it slides clumsily against the twisted cotton, dull as a stone -

“Jesus,” Hagakure says again, but less panicked now that it was clear his life was under no immediate threat. “Okay, you’re gonna hurt yourself.”

“I am not-”

“You totally are, man. Just - don’t slash me, please, and hold still -”

Hagakure gives him a wide, cautious berth, as if still worried he would suddenly turn into some violent, knife-swinging killer, edging until he’s out of Byakuya’s peripheral and standing behind him. A slight tug around his midsection later, and the apron is flapping loosely against his stomach.

To show his thanks, Byakuya sets the knife down before he pulls off the apron, not so much as handing it over as simply dropping it in the other boy’s direction.

He makes to leave, but Hagakure stops him - or tries to, throwing one hand out while scrambling to catch the apron with the other - “Wait, wait,” He still sounds jovial, but there’s a thin edge of nervousness to it now, residual after the earlier scare. “Listen, you don’t hafta help if you don’t want to, but like…can you just hang out? Here?”

“...You want me to stay. In the kitchen.” Where it was overly warm with a pot of water building into a steady boil, heavy with the smell of various condiments and spices, and pervaded by a general stickiness on the tile. “Why?”

“U-um, well…”

Byakuya sighs. He’s wasted too much time already. The coffee he was promised earlier was looking like a lost cause, and frankly, he wasn’t interested in eating anything anymore either. It would feel too much like accepting undue pity, somehow.

Apparently sensing his impatience, Hagakure finally blurts out: “Because-! I’m, um, scared! To be alone! So…”

Byakuya only stares. Even with his hair tied back, the shape of Hagakure’s head is still a round, dark splotch, albeit smaller than usual. And it bobs up and down like a dandelion as he ducks his head, hands clasped in an exaggerated plea. “Please, man, I literally can’t ask anyone else,” He begs. “Mondo’s all psyched-out and freaky serious now, Hifumi and Celeste were weirdos to begin with, and I’m sick of third-wheeling for Hina-chi and Saka-chi! And there’s no way I’m hanging out with Toko!”

He doesn’t mention Makoto or Kirigiri. Which, Byakuya assumes, makes sense, so he doesn’t bother to ask about it. “How do I know you aren’t trying to kill me,” He says instead, deadpan.

Hagakure snorts. “Have you seen me?” And then immediately winces. “I mean - shit, sorry - but seriously, I’m pissing my pants every time Monokuma shows up. And at every crime scene, and every trial. You really think I could get over myself to off someone?”

“None of Monokuma’s motives struck a chord with you?”

“Well - I’d be lying if the first one didn’t make me nervous,” He nods. “But I divined how my parents were doing a bunch of times, and they were always alright, so that didn’t worry me too much. And the thing about secrets; well, mine is that I’m actually on the run from this yakuza boss I accidentally pissed off. I owe him a debt of eight million yen.”

Byakuya is certain he doesn’t miss the way Hagakure glances at him then, based on the way his ponytail twitches as his head turns imperceptibly. He decides to ignore the obvious bait, and moves on: “Fine, then. Then what’s your reasoning that I won’t try to kill you?”

“Oh.” Hagakure pauses. “...I didn’t, uh…think about that.”

Right. Byakuya can’t find it in him to be surprised about that either, though some bruised-up part of his pride does rail against the implication that he wasn’t dangerous. Like being blind meant he was harmless, helpless, defanged - he struggles against the implication, but only sickens himself more with the truth of it.

“I mean…do you want to kill me?”

Byakuya snorts. “I want to leave,” He leans back against the counter, feeling the hard, smooth edge of the marble dig against his back. “Obviously, I’m not crazy enough to spend the rest of my life here, waiting to kill or be killed.” He pauses. “And…I’ve been looking into possible causes for my…circumstance, and it’s looking more and more like it would require the work of a trained doctor, using specific equipment to resolve. Which this place,” He gestures around him. “Isn’t exactly equipped to handle.”

The other boy scratches his head. “Um, yeah. I mean I know that much. We all wanna get out and all, but like…do you want to kill someone to make that happen?”

Not in the slightest. He probably held responsibility for the deaths of multiple people at this point, but he had never had to kill them himself, nor witness the moment of their end. Dirtying his hands with someone else’s blood never appealed to him, and it was far more sophisticated to orchestrate someone else handling the messy work.

But his answer must show on his face, because Hagakure nods, satisfied. “Well, there you go! Also, I ran a divination on whether one of us would die today, and it’s not in the cards or the stars or divine intention, so we’re good!” He claps his hands. “Anyways. If you don’t wanna help, that’s all totally cool. All you gotta do is stick around.”

“You can’t be serious.” He scoffs. But he was getting sick of the earlier conversation - sick of talking about himself, sick of thinking about himself - so he stays where he is, crossing his arms as Hagakure busies himself with the ingredients. “How do your divinations even work, anyways?”

“What, you interested?” Hagakure flashes another white smile, and even through the haze Byakuya gets the impression that it’s a salesman grin. He could practically hear the cartoonish chime of a register. “My current going rate’s ten-million yen a reading, but for you I’ll throw in a buddy’s discount of twenty-percent!”

Byakuya gives him the most unimpressed look he can manage. “I’m not interested in wasting money on frivolities.”

“It’s not frivol-anything, man. They’re a hundred-percent legit! …Thirty-three-percent of the time,” He amends, sheepishly, at Byakuya’s withering stare. “But when they’re real, they’re real! With a hundred-percent accuracy!”

As he talks, his hands blur, moving with practiced ease. The small pile of potatoes changing from brown to pale yellow, to small, misshapen chunks, the green stalks of celery disintegrating under a knife, sharp-smelling and darkening the wood beneath it with its moisture. There’s a steady, fluid grace to it, and Byakuya watches on, feeling a sense of deja vu - faintly envious, partly entranced - the last he felt this way, he recalls, was being a child and watching his mother work in her studio, hewing faces out of stone.

He hasn’t thought about that memory in years, and he clicks his tongue sharply, irritated. Hagakure jumps at the sound. “M-maybe it’s more like a ninety-eight percent accuracy?” The fortune-teller tries, hurriedly. “Uh, it depends on how clearly I can convey it, I mean. Like how good the client is with understanding me…dialect differences and all that, though my English is pretty solid-”

“Why fortune-telling, anyways?” He cuts off Hagakure’s rambling. “I can’t imagine it’s an inherited position. You don’t seem the type to be taking up someone else’s legacy.”

“Oh! Well…” He turns to the pot, scrapes a bowl of brown slurry into its bubbling contents. “It was my dad who got me into it - not that he was a fortune teller or anything - but he knew stories about fortune tellers and priestesses and stuff, from where he grew up. It was pretty interesting, and I guess that’s what got me started.” He stirs, sniffs, tosses a handful of green shapes into the mix. “He actually bought me my first crystal ball, though it was just a cheap souvenir thing. I couldn’t’ve been older than, like, six or something.” He laughs. “Wow, I haven’t thought about this stuff in forever.”

“Am I dredging up bad memories?” Byakuya drawls, and Hagakure shakes his head.

“Nah, just old ones. But I got super into it; started begging my Ma to read me divination textbooks for bedtime, she thought I was going crazy. Dad just said it was normal for little kids to be a little crazy about something they like, though.” He shrugs. Another sniff, a sprinkle of red seasoning. “He was the first person I did an accurate divination for, actually. Like a real divination, not just for pretend.”

He goes quiet for a moment, wooden spoon scraping against the inside of the pot. Byakuya frowns. “And what did you ‘see’?” He asks, though only about half as sarcastic as he intended.

“Saw him in the hospital. And then leaving.” He replies simply. He turns, and scoops up the chopped ingredients in his hands, tossing them in with a hiss. “It was clear as day in that little glass ball, like I was watching a TV screen, except also kinda…I don’t know, wiggly? Like a dream. But I got shook up so bad I dropped it and broke the damn thing, and the next day my Dad went to the doctor for a check-up, and they shipped him to the hospital right after. Some genetic, hereditary thing, they wouldn’t even tell me what it was. I think Ma thought it’d freak me out if I knew, but I was just more freaked out not knowing.”

He reaches blindly behind him, searching hand patting at the counter, the cutting board. Byakuya hesitates, then grabs the bowl of chopped meat and passes it over. Its contents splash into the pot. “Thanks. Anyways, the weirdest thing was that I wasn’t, like, scared he was gonna die, or anything. For some reason I knew he was gonna make it, but I was more worried that he was gonna…hurt? Get even worse?” He pauses. “I kept on doing divinations afterwards with a tarot card set, just to see how he was doing, and each time it told me he was gonna be fine.”

His voice sounds a little thick, indistinct. Byakuya was beginning to regret bringing up this topic; he would hate it if he was suddenly expected to have to comfort a grown man. But instead of bursting into tears, Hagakure leans to the side, tucks his face into his elbow, and sneezes, gunshot loud. “Phew! Jeez, the paprika.” He sniffs, and Byakuya’s unease turns back into a comfortable sort of annoyance. “Anyways. Where was I…?”

“...Your father.” He hesitates for a moment. “When he passed away.”

“When he-?” Hagakure turns fully away from the pot to stare at him, mouth open, before breaking into a laugh. Doubling over so and wheezing like he just got punched. “Dude! No way, are you- did you really think that?!”

“What? Am I wrong?” Byakuya feels his face heating red again, with nothing to do with the steam. “Shut up. The way you were talking about it, you were acting like he kicked the bucket,” He snaps, and Hagakure stifles another laugh. “It’s the logical progression of things. You saw him get sick and die, and then-”

“No, no, dude, I said I saw him in the hospital, and then leave - oh, yeah, I guess I can see how you’d think that now.” He stands up straight again, swiping a hand across his face. “Oh man. No, I meant ‘leave’ as in literally leaving, like at an airport? He got better and swung back around, but got a job offer overseas right after, so he never really came back to settle permanently in Japan.” He turns back to the pot, turning the heat down low. “He sends postcards for me all the time, and he and Ma vacation together every year around the holidays.”

So that was it. Byakuya feels an irrational surge of exasperation, as if all his previous pity had just been wasted. “What does he even do? Your father?”

“He teaches quantum mechanics.” At Byakuya’s stunned expression, he snorts. “What, I’m not kidding! He test-runs all his lectures and speeches and stuff to me, and now I know way more about that stuff than I think most people ever need to!”

‘Prove it’ is on the tip of Byakuya’s tongue, but he holds back. He probably would never recover if Hagakure did somehow manage it and make him look like a fool. Hagakure stirs the pot in silence for a moment longer, before asking: “What about you?”

“What?”

“Your parents.” A shot of cold immediately runs down his spine. “Like, I know your dad’s a big rich unmarried bachelor hotshot, but what about your mom? Ah- ” Hagakure presses hand to his mouth. “She…is she, like…?”

“She’s not dead, if that’s what you’re trying to ask.” He replies, stiffly. “We’re estranged.”

“O-oh. Um. I’m sorry?”

“It’s fine.” He pauses, looks down at the tile floor. It was a mutual disavowment, around the time he made the decision to try for Togami heir. She was relieved to be rid of him, he was sure, and he was glad to be out of her house full of stone statues and hollow eyes. “I haven’t been in contact with her for several years. We’re as good as strangers.”

He really should just leave it at that. There’s no reason to elaborate any further, nor does he want to; he glares down at his feet, trying to count the tiles, and watches as the dark lines dividing them squiggle and disappear the moment he loses focus. And finds his mouth moving against his will. “My mother is Genevieve Delasol.”

“Cool.” A pause. “Wait, what!?”

Byakuya scowls and looks away as Hagakure turns back to him. “Like, the Delasol?! World-famous artist lady? With the sculptures? Miss Modern Michelangelo?!”

“Don’t call her that.” She had always hated that stupid nickname that the press forced on her, and so did he, though not for her benefit. It was a tasteless, and frankly disrespectful moniker. “But yes. Her.”

“Dude…” There’s awe in his voice, as if it were something impressive. “That’s crazy.”

“It’s not. She birthed me like any other human.”

“Still! Like, they talked about her in my elementary school art class. Her stuff is so-” He splays his fingers near his head, puffs his cheeks to mimic the sound of an explosion. “Like, I remember seeing pictures of her stuff for the first time, and it freaked me out. One of the older kids in the neighborhood told me she was freezing people into rock, that’s how real her stuff looks.”

“She’s a good artist, but she was an awful mother.” Byakuya says flatly, immediately draining the rest of Hagakure’s enthusiasm. “We’re not continuing his conversation.”

“Right, right. Um. Sorry.” He taps his fingers against the spoon, ladles some of it into a little dish to taste. “Okay, um. Could you pass me some dishes? From that cabinet in front of you - to the left - yeah, thanks.”

The concoction he scoops into the shallow dishes Byakuya hands him is…unappealing. At least visually - a muddy brown sludge that glops thickly off of his ladle - but it smells good, spicy and warm. One of the bowls is passed back, and there’s a conflict of sensation as Byakuya tries to decide if he’s hungry enough to risk it, something that he couldn’t even clearly oversee the process of making.

“You’re surprisingly well-versed in the kitchen.”

“Yeah, well. I get into hot water a lot when my fortunes don’t work out, especially with my, uh…higher class clients, so I had to get used to taking care of myself. Didn’t wanna bother my parents with it, ya know?” He flicks off the stove, covers the pot, and reaches to the right for the rice cooker. Opens it with a sharp smack to the lid. “Like, I don’t think I’ve seen my dad face-to-face in…it feels like two years. Maybe longer.”

He holds out his hand. Byakuya passes over his bowl, and he plops some rice into the center of it, before handing it back.

“I can’t finish this much.”

“Sure you can, you’re a growing guy.” There’s the roll of a drawer being pulled open, then a clatter before a spoon is being dropped into his bowl as well. “You better eat all of it, by the way. Every grain of rice has seven gods, so you gotta eat them all so you don’t get cursed.”

“...What kind of saying is that?”

“Dunno, but my Ma used to say it all the time. Come on, let’s go into the caf-”

He halts suddenly, halfway to the door. Byakuya nearly runs into his back, and just barely keeps from spilling his bowl. “What-”

“Um. Hold on.” The previous casualness of his voice is gone, and there’s a hard thread of unease running through it again. “Uh…wait out here for a moment, okay?”

“Why-”

“Dude, please. Just for a moment.” He sets his bowl down on the counter. “I’ll be right back.”

And then he’s out the door before Byakuya can make any protest, leaving him alone in the kitchen, now uncomfortably quiet without the soft hiss of the stove. He stands there, stunned, feeling a little bit stung - no, irked - at the sudden dismissal.

He wasn’t about to take orders from Hagakure, regardless of whatever weird pseudo-symbiotic-relationship the other boy thought they had going on. He walks towards the door, moving to elbow it open-

“I’m telling you, just leave him alone.”

He freezes, ducking his head down. Hagakure’s voice is high and scratchy with nervousness, but firm despite that. “For the last time-”

“I-I-I-” Someone else stutters. The voice is familiar, and Byakuya feels his gut drop in recognition. The last he heard it, it was seething with malice, spit like venom at his feet. “I j-just wanna l-look at him…”

Hagakure lets out a long-suffering sigh, indicating that this wasn’t the first time he’s had to deal with this. “Seven hells, Toko, I really don’t get you,” He grumbles. “You said you hated him, right? I mean, you said so at the trial, and you did…all that.” He coughs. “He wasn’t interested to begin with, and there’s really no way to turn it around after that.”

“I-It was t-to prove that we’re th-the same!” Fukawa shrieks, trigger-sudden and indignant. There’s a sharp thump as she stomps her foot, hard enough to rattle some nearby furniture. “If I d-didn’t do that, he w-would’ve never a-accepted what h-happened to him!”

Byakuya frowns at that, and sets the bowl aside in favor of sinking into a half-crouch, ear pressing up against the door, beneath the tiny window. What was she talking about? Not accepting my own condition? Don’t I know myself better than anyone else?

“That’s not up to you to decide,” Hagakure starts.

“I-It’s not up t-to you to p-protect him either!” She spits back. “Y-you’ve been keeping him a-away from me recently, wh-what’s with you? D-did you have some k-kind of awakening, or something?!”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that my type is none of your business - and anyways, ain’t it logical to wanna keep away from you?” He grumbles, then yelps. “C-calm down-! I just mean - you know, you…you don’t exactly give off warm and fuzzy feelings about hanging out with people!”

Toko barks a laugh, shrill and mirthless. “Wh-which makes him perfect for me,” And Byakuya feels disgust roll down his back. “I-I know I’m m-miserable, a-and unfriendly and unloveable,”

“Hey,” Hagakure says, a little more gently than before.

“B-but s-so is he! H-he’s just b-better at hiding it, p-pretending to be a, a perfect, white-horse prince,” She spits the words vehemently. “I-if he was p-perfect, th-then maybe, I c-could just be s-satisfied with - with being n-near him, with b-being used…”

She trails off. Byakuya fights the urge to physically cringe at the mere suggestion, instead gritting his teeth, nails scratching lightly against the door’s tacky surface. “B-but, he’s not perfect. S-so, that means I c-can reach him - i-it’s possible for someone l-like m-me to actually be with him,” She giggles, and the sound is far too childishly delighted to suit her mouth, and far too chilling to have innocent intentions behind it. “I-I dragged him off his p-pedestal, s-so now I can actually touch him.”

It’s vile, listening to her. The sound feels like a filth that clings to him, sliding into his ears, contaminating him from the inside out. Poisoning him, paralyzing him.

He’s only vaguely aware of his body sliding down lower, unable to maintain the awkward pose, curled over and unable to brace himself properly against the swinging door. He sinks into a squat, ears straining.

“...Um, ew.” Hagakure mutters succinctly. “Okay, first of all, no you can’t. Pretty sure Monokuma would have some problems about that, he’s all gung-ho about decency and stuff. Second, Toga’s still not gonna be into you. You blew that chance when you, uh…”

“When I w-what? S-strung up Chihiro?” She snorts. “H-he would’ve done the s-same if h-he was a-actually as perfect as h-he said.”

The contamination sinks deeper, claws curling cruelly into his chest. I would have never, He thinks through the tinny, lightheaded hum in his skull, but there’s a sickening sense of dread that twists in his stomach as he realizes he can’t even be sure of that. He might have. He would’ve had no use for Chihiro if he wasn’t blind, he would have barely even hesitated if the opportunity was there - to defile someone else’s corpse for nothing more than his own self-righteousness.

He’s probably had this realization already, but it’s revolting to hear it come from Fukawa. He should go out there, tell her to shut up, to leave him be-

“-a-and anyways, y-you still didn’t t-tell me why y-you’re so obsessed with p-protecting him.” She’s still saying, distantly, and it feels as if the door is suddenly several times thicker than it was previously, muffling the sound dramatically. “Y-you don’t have a-anything in c-common, I don’t s-see why you’d want t-to be near him, u-unless…y-you’re doing it for someone else, aren’t y-you?”

Hagakure doesn’t respond. Makes no sound to confirm or deny it. Byakuya waits, ringing intensifying, disease festering into his lungs. It was getting hard to breathe. His pulse thrums in his ears, too loud to think, not nearly loud enough to drown their voices out.

“I s-saw you with Makoto,” She continues, and the confirmation of Byakuya’s suspicion does nothing to make him feel better. “He- he asked you t-to do this, right? To protect him, h-how nice,” She snarls, disgusted. “L-looking out for his p-precious boyfriend, when he won’t d-do it himself-”

“That’s…that’s not it,” Hagakure protests, but he doesn’t sound convincing, voice so hesitant and soft that Byakuya barely catches it. “Mako-chi’s just…busy, right now-”

“Y-yeah, too busy trying to g-get out of here so Byakuya c-can get fixed, so he can s-stop f-feeling guilty - h-he doesn’t want to have to look at him, b-but he can’t help s-sticking his nose in anyways, he’s s-so sweet it makes me sick.” Byakuya legs shake, cramping, but he forces himself still, keeps his ear flattened to the door despite the nausea building in his gut, the light-headedness in his temples - “B-but it’s too much work t-to comfort him or drag him a-around, s-so he has to get s-someone to do it, right?”

He wouldn’t, is Byakuya’s immediate thought, but it’s weak, even in his own head. Makoto hasn’t sought him out all since that night in the bathhouse because Byakuya had requested it; had demanded that he leave him alone with as much vitriol and firmness as he could muster, and as with so many other things, Makoto had obeyed. But while Fukawa’s words are acerbic and biting, they’re also painfully, terribly logical.

He wonders now, how he must have looked to the others. Slowly falling apart, barely eating, rarely showing his face. So utterly different from how he tried to portray himself at first, an ill-fitted facsimile of how he used to be, how he should be; it’s no wonder Makoto would go behind his back to take care of him. Between disobeying him again and trying to keep him alive, the choice must have been easy.

The fact that that choice had to be made at all, however, made Byakuya want to…

There’s a thud as his legs finally give out, his knees smashing against the tile, but he hardly notices. Not while the sickness spreads, a physical decay in his torso eating away at him, swift and insatiable. He’s not hungry anymore, but he feels emptier than he’s ever been.

The door swings open suddenly, bumping against his shoulder, and he sways, unsteady. Hands reach out, catching him before he can fall over.

“Whoa, hey,” Hagakure sounds muffled, underwater. He hooks his hands beneath Byakuya’s arms, trying to pull him upright, and only then does Byakuya realize that he’s not really breathing. Probably hasn’t been for the past few minutes. “Toga- I mean- you okay?”

Of course not, he wants to snap, but talking would mean opening his mouth, and that would mean breaking down into tears like a petulant infant, so he clamps his mouth shut and tries to get as much oxygen as he can through his nose. Slow, stuttered, wheezing breaths, teeth sinking into raw, just-healing skin and breaking it bloody all over again. He leans away from Hagakure’s grip as much as possible and tries to brace himself against the wall, shaky hands against the cool bumps of the tile. Trying to count them, one by one.

“I,” He manages to grit out when he was marginally more calm, ignoring Hagakure’s worried clucking. His voice quavers, and he swallows hard around the shrapnel lodged in his throat. “I’m going to go.”

“Dude, come on-”

He lurches forward, clumsily dodging Hagakure’s attempts to support him, and walks as steadily as he can out of the kitchen. The moment he crosses the open space of the cafeteria and into the hallway, he breaks into a sprint for his room. As far away from prying eyes as he can manage.

(When he opens his door later that night, he finds a plastic container and a spoon sitting by the threshold, its contents long cold.)

(He eats it anyways and scrapes it clean, and leaves it sitting empty outside of his door again.)

< previous - from start - next >

#thpff #thpff chapters #danganronpa fanfiction #byakuya togami #yasuhiro hagakure #a little bit of togakure interaction. for the truthers out there #have not written a togakure fic but i think they deserve it. its a good dynamic. it's fun its fresh #sorry i said i was gonna get this out on like. what. last monday?? and then did Not Do That...lolz #i'll try not to make a habit of it (or at least give proper heads up ig)#i hope this fic is still like. interesting. idk if i think about what ive written so far its like...really all just blond guy whump #i mean. i did write it for that purpose. and for tonaegiri. but still #i think the part that gave me the most trouble was trying to figure out how he would react to toko's beatdown #like why r u so complex about it...he's dealing with an inferiority complex + unwanted intervention + weird makoto affection #cant decide to be angry at makoto vs moved by his consideration vs wallow a bit more about his physical state. damn!!!#ended up rewriting that part like three different times and i still dont like it #whateverr im sick of looking at this. just take it sob

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sunderedazem · 4 months ago

Text

I know i already have a dawntrail reaction post here with a genuine take but i am going to bitch again because i saw some condescending shit and got annoyed. So yeah. This is a vent. If it's not about you then it's not about you, you know? I'm not naming anyone b/c it's an aggregate annoying not a That Person Is Annoying.

Anyway.

Have a certain segment of the people who liked all or most of DT considered that perhaps, some people who disliked parts of dawntrail (especially the latter half) dislike it because they understood and actually just *disagree* with the themes and portrayal of the themes of that portion of the game? I don't dislike it because I didn't get it or because i didn't interpret it correctly (because this shit is subjective too!), I dislike it because it feels like it's spitting on the themes of the previous two expansions to me. Maybe the patch quests will resolve that dislike, i don't know. The Arcadion raids are helping a little, admittedly. If it keeps going like that I might start appreciating things I didn't before.

(Spoilers below here)

BUT- I will never be okay with the fact that all of Living Memory gets deleted, and the people of Alexandria do not have their memories of their lost loved ones restored. To me, that is not moving on, or moving forward, and our characters, the Scions, and the Tuliyollali (?) do not actually have the capability or right to remember these people on behalf of Alexandria when Alexandria's people *still exist*.

The past two expansions have involved uncovering and remembering, or at least acknowledging, a forgotten people, while also protecting the people of today. The Ascians are not an existing society deliberately divesting themselves from their past, they are a nearly-dead people who want the past back. And we choose to remember them, as Emet-selch asks, because we are his last chance of Amaurot not being utterly lost to time. We are literally his last resort. Our win means his people stay dead. He asks us to remember because we're the only people left who even know a little bit about Amaurot.

But Alexandria is a society that is still present! It still has its own culture, its own history, it's own right to keep and change and preserve all of that! But it's people don't appear to know when people die (or if they're killed for their souls, as is implied with Ambrose) or about psychonekrosis. They literally don't remember death. And they all deserve an actual chance to be able to preserve their own culture and history and to remember their own dead! Shutting down Living Memory with NO provisions made for them to be able to preserve the memory of their past *if they so choose to* is nothing like the previous themes of FFXIV and I don't like that. At all.

I am very tired of people acting like a dislike for Dawntrail indicates incomprehension or worse, malice somehow. Or acting like this point of view is completely incomprehensible and means "you're just mad it's not SHB and that's unfair to the devs" or etc. (or the worst- somehow assuming I'm a reddit dudebro who hates Wuk Lamat because I can't handle a leading woman if I ever mention that I thought her character was misused in the latter half of DT.)

I'm really, genuinely happy for you if you loved the latter half of DT. It was visually stunning. The music all slaps. Heritage Found is fucking eerie as shit and the intro to this part of the game with Namikka gave me good heebiejeebies. I can see why people enjoyed it. But to me, the end felt like a series of just...shock value emotional moments. It felt pointless and worse, kind of careless and callous (at least from a Watsonian viewpoint). And I would like that to NOT be called a "red flag lol" thank you. I'm perfectly sure I can hold a normal fucking discussion with people who loved the shit outta Dawntrail about things we mutually enjoyed.

Idk man. This is a vent post, obviously. And I do get that Twitter and Reddit are being Twitter and Reddit. I'm not on them for a few reasons but that nastiness is the main one. But it's also really fucking annoying to keep seeing shit that amounts to "If you dislike or criticize DT at all you're a nasty foul person/stupid idiot who is objectively wrong and you're not worth speaking to ever again." Like dude- can we NOT reactively slide to the polar opposite of the reddit dudebros. Can we just acknowledge that they have viewpoints that are shit *outside* the game that are causing them to have shitty other opinions.

Sighs. Anyway.

#vent #dawntrail venting #some dawntrail spoilers #I'm probably adding that tag until the seasons change so

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revserrayyu · 8 months ago

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2.2 Penacony thoughts [part 5]

**Major story spoilers** as we’re finished the main story here. Going to be chatting even more about Acheron and our time in the Horizon of Existence, the real final boss, as well as all cutscenes that follow, so if you haven’t finished the whole story yet, I encourage you to come back and read this all later if you wish to do so after you experience everything for yourself first.

I gotta start off by saying that I absolutely love how this scene looks. Yeah it’s upsetting to learn that Acheron’s companion here is actually dead, but all the rain falling upon that red glow is just really nice to look at. Of course Acheron is slaying as usual too. I even dig the shadowy look of this man despite his circumstances.

Is Acheron kinda of like a grim reaper of sorts? At least that’s the feeling I’m getting when she says she’s guiding lost souls. And correct me if I’m wrong, but he is the one who wanted flowers on his grave, right? He just doesn’t remember I assume? It also seems that “Acheron” is just a river and I vaguely remember Acheron mentioning one during her conversation with the “Dreammaster” inside the park.

So I guess this is what all that red text meant? It wasn’t something we should have feared but a way to guide us forward, onto the right path? That’s how I’m interpreting it. Anyways, name drop reveals that this man was actually one of the Nameless buried at Dream Flux Reef.

Soon enough we arrived at the Horizon of Existence with Acheron and I’m like 99% sure this set of questions she asks us are close to the same exact ones she spoke of when we met her inside that first dream. I wish I remembered my choices to her questions from back then, because with the game only giving us one option to choose for each question, I wonder if it’s giving us the same option we picked when we first answered her because that would be amazing.

SHE. SAID. THE. THING!!! Acheron real name confirmed!!! Even though it’s pretty much what we all expected from the very beginning, it’s great for it to finally be true and not be a total secret.

A big ol’ cutscene begins and it reminds me of how little we actually received about Boothill, like yeah he shoots that fancy relic bullet up into the sky because he’s the only Galaxy Ranger around who can do so, but he didn’t do much else? I mean I absolutely enjoyed seeing him interact with Dan Heng and everyone else but to not even get the chance to fight a battle with him seems weird after 2.1 gave us the chance to really use both Acheron and Aventurine and test our their gameplay whenever we switched to their perspectives. Same thing happened with Robin too. We walked around as her and Boothill for brief moments but that was pretty much it, making the switch seem kinda pointless to me.

I got no words for this. It’s just an incredibly beautiful screenshot of her. I’ll never get tired of seeing all that red whenever this monochrome world takes over. Makes me regret skipping her every day but next time I’ll pull her for sure.

Yet another line she told us during our first encounter with her. Also, if this is the last time we see her in the story, I’m gonna be sad.

The crew!!!! I’ll admit it does look a little silly that we’re only armed with a hat while everyone else has a reasonable weapon, but I love each one of us so much!! It felt perfect for me to have Himeko in my team during the upcoming fight too.

While I figured we were gonna be blessed with Robin’s appearance and one of her songs during the fight, can I just say that I was not expecting the assist mechanic to be the mother-forking Express?? I had joked somewhere sometime ago that if Pom-Pom were to ever become playable, that their ultimate would be running the enemy over with the train and color me surprised, because that’s pretty much what happens!!

So the final battle itself went pretty well. Took a bit more damage than before but still an easier fight overall than how Aventurine’s went for me. I knew I didn’t have to bring in our dear gambler in since the fight itself granted us shields, but his helped me just fine along with all those follow up attacks.

I think my Trailblazer managed to do pretty well too? I stressed so hard to break that 145 on speed to access that secondary buff of the Talia planar ornaments, so that’s why other stats may be a bit lacking. At least I have break effect at 197%.. is that reasonable?

Anyways, as much as I adore Serval, I had to use the train to deliver the final hit.

Pfft, ain’t no way. Sunday is really over.

Look at us protecting March, aww!

Trailblazer pulls off some last minute talk-no-jutsu to get through to Sunday’s head and with a heartfelt embrace from Robin, I think it’s time to start crying.

C’mon, look at how gorgeous this is!! Such a beautiful sunrise to witness after all the chaos is over.

Surprisingly, the credits roll again only this time it actually feels like a proper ending to the story. It even lists Acheron’s true name, yet March still remains a mystery. When will we ever learn? Who knows.

Final cutscene of the patch begins and what do you mean Argenti saved Aventurine??? When and how and why didn’t we get to witness such a moment with two of Star Rail’s most beautiful men!

Aventurine betting his own life once again.. oh dear, you never learn. Then again, it seems you never lose either so, go ahead sweetie. Go get that promotion you so rightfully deserve!

This scene also bums me out a little because I was really hoping we would actually get to see Jade arrive in game this time around, but it seems we’ll have to wait even longer. Cutting it a bit close to her release with it being in the same patch but at least she’s phase two. I’m pulling for her day one though. I don’t care what happens in the story, it won’t change my mind about her! (to be fair, I’ve seen some leaks about her gameplay and, oh my god..)

Boothill unexpectedly enters the room after knocking out the two IPC guards outside the door and we’re left with yet another cliffhanger. Definitely not as strong as a final scene as the previous two versions but no way a random name drop could match a sudden surprise death either.

And finally, that’s all for now. Penacony remains to be a story full of mysterious twists and there’s plenty more to see.. hopefully. We still have no clear idea what happened to Firefly, then there’s all those bombs Sparkle was handing out to everyone, we still have to officially meet Jade and see what she and Topaz have planned. Sunday and Robin were last seen falling from the sky so they gotta land safely and I haven’t a clue if we’ll even see Acheron again. Here’s hoping 2.3 ties up all loose ends and gives Penacony the finale it deserves!

#honkai star rail #acheron #boothill #stelle #robin #sunday #aventurine #gameplay #revs rambles

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blvcklizard · 1 month ago

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I was going to treat this idea as an AU, but while making this post I realised it works out a lot better than I initially thought, so it's a theory now. Unless- disclaimer- it was mentioned that it did in fact happen in canon at some point and I either missed it or completely forgot, in that case it's more like an analysis. While I'm at it, major spoilers for Castti's story and Journey for the Dawn ahead. (Also under cut because it got a little ramble-y and stupidly long, I got carried away I'm sorry.)

Anyway. It would make so much sense if Trousseau encountered a shadow at some point?

The Castti/Ochette crossed path essentially explains that the shadow uses the darkness in your heart (which like, despite his characterisation, he had plenty of), so not only would he be absolutely weak to it (if even Castti almost broke down, someone who's already extremely unstable on that matter isn't holding up for two seconds here), it'd also explain why he lost his mind like that? Like, I can totally see Claude and the Book of Night twisting his idea of salvation, and he clearly wasn't the pinnacle of mental stability before either, but shadow influence playing into his insanity would make so much sense.

This could go two ways, either that the effects of the shadow put him under so much stress he just snapped, or that he was actually (partially) taken over by it, as we've seen, I assume, the shadow attempting to do Castti in her second crossed path chapter. I don’t like the idea of treating these two as entirely separate where one would be correct and the other not, realistically it's probably a mix of both, but for the sake of exploring I'll treat them as two different options.

The first one is probably more in line with canon, because it might as well be a side effect to the poison (rather than an actual shadow encounter). It's very heavily implied he experimented with it, so he probably came in contact with it too. There's no actual evidence that it affects the mind iirc (you could argue that Castti's amnesia/hallucinations fall into that category, but personally I don't think so) but if he repeatedly handled shadow energy, I can very well imagine it resonated with all the issues he already had. It would also explain the changes he went through from Castti's chapter 3 to 4. (This is a small detour but he seemed slightly more sane in her chapter 3, mostly regarding the way he acted towards Eir's Apothecaries/Castti. In chapter 3, he obviously still cared about them despite everything since he wanted to keep them out of the picture, and the scene where he leaves Healeaks is called something like "painful goodbye" [loosely translated as I'm not playing the game in English] too. Meanwhile in chapter 4 he's far quicker to see Castti as the enemy and doesn't try to explain his actions anymore.) This is actually relevant for my next point, which is another reason why I think both cases would likely coexist.

(I'm back at defending a part of his characterisation most people don't like, I'm sorry, it's something I actually love for multiple reasons. anyway) As for the "partial possession" approach, it would also explain the duality of his state. We see this a few times, but the most extreme example is the mid-battle dialogue during his boss, where he (rather explicitly) goes from "in a lot of pain and genuiely believes he's doing the only right thing" to "insane mass murderer" within a few lines. And sure, maybe he truly tried to convince Castti and realised it was pointless, but that doesn't seem in line with his previous actions. So I'm not talking about possession in the literal sense, but rather that two states of being coexist in his mind. On the one hand a part influenced by the book and his general instability, that genuinely believes all life is suffering and there's no other way out, and on the other hand the death-obsessed maniac that's influenced by the shadow.

I just think the distinction between his belief system and mental state is interesting, and if we assume it's true, it'd further support the idea that it has different origins. It'd "realistically" make so much sense too, as far as we can speak of such in this context lol. Claude and the book convincing him that murder is the kindest choice makes enough sense, but imagining his insanity as the result of shadow influence adds such an interesting layer to the whole thing, especially in contrast to Castti in light of her second crossed path chapter.

#octopath traveler 2 #ot2 #octopath traveler ii #trousseau #trousseau octopath #spoilers #octopath 2 spoilers #running into a shadow seems easier than stumbling into lostseed idk #and that's assuming that claude didn't get involved in this too #i just wanted to explore the idea for the angst potential but damn it would explain so much

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shipcestuous-two · 8 months ago

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Fallout (spoilers!)

@bourbonthesecond: The new Fallout show has canon incest. The lead has been fooling around with her cousin but breaks it off for an arranged marriage. It's apparently enough of a feature in Vault life that they have laws against it but it seems to be fairly culturally accepted. He's heartbroken and rebounds with her best friend.

Anon: I imagine you must have gotten a number of asks about this by now but!! I just watched the Fallout show with my partners and I'm not over the canonical cousin-incest that takes place in Vault 33 lmao. Episode 1 has characters casually talking about fooling around with their cousins as kids (before moving on to "real" relationships for the sake of procreation), and the protagonist's cousin is openly in love with her. She turns him down, but to me they felt like that had more chemistry than she did with her actual love interest lol.

I really enjoyed Fallout (a couple things about it make me scratch my head but I enjoyed the ride either way) and I’ve seen it twice now.

It’s clear that, at least in Vault 33, fooling around with your cousin is no big deal. I’m not familiar with the games, so help me out here if you know for sure, but the vaults seem to have 100-200 people if they’re full. While I can see how that would lend itself to cousins fooling around, from lack of selection, it’s also not like there wasn’t anyone else she could be with.

Lucy states that her reproductive organs are intact and she maintains good hygiene, but she hasn’t been able to find a suitable marriage partner in their vault.

So, except for Chet being her cousin, and she agrees that cousins shouldn’t have children together, she considers him a suitable marriage partner. (Given their limited gene pool, cousins really shouldn’t be having children together in that context, probably. But how long before they’re all cousins anyway? Maybe it’s a pointless delaying of the inevitable.)

She tells her friend Steph that after ten years of “cousin stuff”, she’s ready for the real thing. It’s unclear if she and Chet were having sex, it kind of sounds like they weren’t doing the kind of stuff that could have gotten her pregnant. But ten years! That’s a long time.

This whole thing was a little strange, because it’s played for laughs, but there’s just a little more to it than that. Chet is in love with Lucy, it wasn’t just fooling around for him. And Lucy says that everyone knows he’s in love with her. No one cares about that either, but they all follow the rule that she and Chet can’t marry. So that was interesting point #1. Interesting point #2 is that Chet is one of the main characters in the Vault 33. He’s secondary character overall. He could have easily just been a throw away character never mentioned again. Interesting point #3 is that Chet being in love with Lucy gets mentioned again, a couple of episodes later. In a rather sad way, when Norm suggests that Chet came with him to investigate Vault 32 because he’s still in love with Lucy and being with Norm reminds him of Lucy. It’s like, ok, make me cry. Why is this so sad!

While it isn’t discussed explicitly after that, it’s pretty clear that Chet isn’t happy with Steph. For more than one reason, but probably mainly because he’s still in love with Lucy.

I assume, given the circumstances, that Chet is the maternal cousin of Lucy and Norm. While Chet and Norm spent quite a few scenes together, I didn’t like that they never referenced that they were cousins, too. This is a tangent, but when Chet was sent to live in Vault 32, Norm called him a coward instead of being like, “Bye, Cousin. I’ll miss you!” But I think he was just bad at showing that he felt abandoned and that now he would be alone with all of his questions. But what I’m really getting at is that Norm had lost his mother, his father, and Lucy, and then his cousin gets sent to live in the other vault and they’ll only see each other every three years, if even.

I also wanted to note that Norm calls Chet a coward, which was really hypocritical since we know Norm feels guilty about hiding during the big fight, but which also isn’t fair because when Lucy wanted to go to the surface, Chet wanted to go with her and she had to drug him to stop him.

I really can’t believe that the show has a tortured canon cousins relationship, with sympathetic unrequited love and the two of them forbidden from marrying.

While of course Lucy has a canon love interest on the surface and likely won’t be back to Vault 33 anytime soon, it is kind of fun that her arranged marriage, her “real thing” ended up being a man who tried to kill her. It’s like, Chet is looking pretty good right now, isn’t he?

#fallout #lucy x chet #first cousins #canon #first post #asks #nr #chet and lucy

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kaiowut99 · 9 months ago

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episode 1 Subbed (Finalized Re-Release)

(Original Finalized Release Post)

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-1: Yugi's Successor

On his way to the Entrance Exams for the Duel Academia High School, Judai Yuki meets the legendary duelist Yugi Mutou and receives a card from him. Running late, Judai arrives at the venue and requests to take his exam, but Instructor Chronos sees Judai's exam as pointless given his lackluster score on the written exam. A duel begins between Judai and Chronos, and Chronos's rare Antique Gear Golem card uses its powerful 3000 ATK to damage Judai. His back against the wall, Judai hears the voice of a Monster--which turns out to belong to the card he received from Yugi, Winged Kuriboh...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...I first posted the original finalized version of this episode almost 10 years ago??? Time is an illusion...

Fresh off the presses, it's a re-finalized version of my episode 1 subs! Well, probably re-re-re-re-finalized given my penchant for consistency and quality after previous revisions in the past 2-3 years, between fixing a handful of animation errors and terminology revisions... But this one merited a new post not so much for any updated translations, but because after casually skimming through this episode a while back, I noticed more animation errors, all card-related, that I'm now able to fix as I have for episodes since. You know the deal with this one, I'm sure; new kid on the block bumps into the Game King himself as he runs late for his Academia exam and manages to hit one of the school's best with his skills--literally. Fun opening episode to a fun series.

With this, I'm hoping to officially call this episode finalized for good, mainly because the kind of annoying thing about doing further revisions now is that, thanks to my solid-state drive (SSD) failing in October of 2022, I lost my personal copies of the episode scripts with the ATK/DEF counters I stylize and all, so it means I have to cut/stitch together different parts of the episode between the fixes I applied and the previous hardsub to account for the stat-counter subs or the eyecatch subs I started doing--since the softsub MKVs I release don't have those specific subs, they're easier to update. So I hopefully shouldn't be touching anything before episode 84 (the first one I finalized after getting a new drive) again and those can ideally be considered finalized for good. I'm hoping I can also give that title to 84-109 (where I currently am), but I'd like to think I didn't miss anything, lol.

Anyway, as mentioned, this revision applies several card-related fixes to the episode, some of which replicate fixes 4Kids did for the dub that I took a cue from. The fixes were added to the last DVDRip I released, subsequently made into a new softsub MKV, both of which will be up on NAC soon with the updated hardsub. List below the cut below as always, for the interested~ (Nice thing with some of these is that the frame rate was usually consistent, which meant that editing most panning shots and the occasional zoom shots were usually more of a breeze than later on, haha.)

Enjoy, folks; with this out of the way, since it's been about two weeks since 108 and 109 were finished up, I'll start setting up stuff for finalizing 110 while doing a little more TFSP work here/there before I fully start on 110 sometime next week. Stay tuned!

Fixes & Edits!

*The bolded edits below were applied back in 2021 and were added into the original release post; adding them here for completeness.

Applied a card back to an orange rectangle that was a face-down card during the panning shot of the Exam Duels going on over the episode’s opening narration as it fades to Chronos watching, repeating the edit as it pans back around again before fading to Manjoume and Ryou/Asuka watching.

As Misawa's exam proctor says that he stands no chance against his Super Defense Deck, the blank-art cards on his Disk for Big Shield Guardna and Gear Golem the Moving Fortress are reversed (the wider side for the effect box should be on the right). Fixed by applying proxies on them for a frame in AfterEffects, masking in the card outlines for blending, before taking that frame into Sony Vegas and zooming it out for the zoom shot here.

As Misawa's Ring of Destruction destroys Vorse Raider, we see the smoke rush onto the proctor's side of the field--and as we do, we can quickly see the blank-art Big Shield Guardna and Gear Golem cards on his Disk are again reversed before the smoke covers them. Fixed first in AfterEffects by slapping the proxies on for a frame, then in Vegas by taking that frame into and keyframing it to the rapid panning shot for most of its 17 frames. (Incidentally, throughout this scene, a different error happens in the dub, where aside from keeping the cards' orientation on the proctor's Disk incorrect, they also shuffle between Gear Golem and Big Shield Gardna being Normal or Effect Monsters--bit of an identity crisis!)

Fixed the error with Misawa’s LP dropping to zero after he uses Ring of Destruction to finish his Exam Duel; should have dropped to 1300.

After the proctor's LP drop to zero, he congratulates Misawa on his win, but the Gear Golem card on his Disk is reversed. Fixed first in AfterEffects by applying my proxy for a few frames, then taking one of those frames into Vegas to lightly keyframe as the shot pans left. (As a fun editing aside, I could tell 4Kids likely edited this in a similar way to how I did because as the cards fade out, you can briefly see some residue of Manjoume's hair outline on Big Shield Gardna's card which they didn't cover up; I definitely made sure I went the extra mile with redrawing the arena floor to cover that haha.)

After Misawa thanks the proctor, we zoom out to Manjoume in the stands as the Solid Vision fades out, but the cards under Big Shield Guardna and Gear Golem are--you guessed it--reversed. Fixed in a few ways, with the goal being to redo Big Shield Guardna and Gear Golem fading out--first, in Vegas, I took the first frame after they're gone and zoomed it into place at the start of the zoom, which let me cover up Gear Golem and most of Big Shield Guardna, but because Manjoume's hair moves upward as the shot zooms out, doing this means I couldn't fully cover it. So, I then took this first post-fadeout frame into Photoshop, where I used the Clone Tool to duplicate the arena floor and cover up the rest of Big Shield Guardna, reinserting it into Vegas and applying the zoom keyframes I did to the earlier frames to it--this lets my edited frame properly zoom out with the shot. Once done, I went into AfterEffects and applied the Big Shield and Gear Golem proxies onto the shot's first frame, masking them above the cards, then took that frame into Vegas to zoom out with the shot (rather easily, luckily, thanks to the frame rate note I mentioned up top), masked out Big Shield and Gear Golem and made them fade out into the edited frame in the layer below. With that set, all I had left was to go back and mask Manjoume's hair back above the edits for the duration of the fade, which was pretty easy, and boom goes the dynamite.

After Judai's duel with Chronos starts, he summons out Elemental Hero Featherman, but the card gets placed reversed on his Disk. Fixed in AfterEffects by applying a proxy first to one frame during the initial light zoom-out in the shot, taking the fixed frame into Vegas to re-zoom and hold once the zoom was over.

Chronos reacts to Featherman's summon, and as Featherman lands in front of Judai, his card on his Disk is reversed again, but also as the screen pans right, for a few frames as Judai moves to then place a card face-down, the shadow under his left leg goes from being more gray to black, turning back to gray once he stops moving. Fixed in AfterEffects first by placing a correctly facing proxy on his Disk for a frame, which I then took into Vegas and re-panned into the shot; while in Vegas, I then masked in the gray leg shadow over the black, masking in part of Featherman's ATK/DEF counter over the edit to blend it in.

In the next shot, as Judai ends his turn and their LP counters pop up, the Featherman card under him on the field is reversed; fixed in AfterEffects by slapping in a proxy, masking Featherman back in above it.

[cont below]

(10) After Chronos uses Confiscation, as he sends Judai's Revival of the Dead/Monster Reborn to his Cemetery, a few things happen: 1) the Featherman card on his field under him on the field is facing Chronos in Attack Mode, and 2) it's in the wrong Zone on Judai's Disk, as it should be in Monster Zone 3. I fixed this a few ways, first fixing the Featherman-on-field aspect in AfterEffects, applying a Defense-Mode proxy under Featherman and masking him and Judai back over it; I then took a cue from 4Kids and took the frame immediately after his Cemetery stops being lit up (but before Judai starts to move) and the frames as Judai moves into Photoshop, where I copied the empty Zone 1 into place over Zone 2, blending it in with some minor editing, and combined it with the AfterEffects edit I then did by applying a Featherman proxy in Defense Mode to Zone 3. After throwing everything into Vegas, I then applied some masking to a solid-white color layer to replicate the lights coming from Judai's Cemetery slot (helped by the fact that, luckily, the lights don't move). (The dub, for their part, only handled the Disk aspect, applying a weird light to cover up their Zone 2 edit while the Graveyard was lit up, leaving the Featherman card on the field as it originally was, OCG format and all lol.)

(11) Chronos activating Heavy Storm causes a huge storm of wind on the field, and as it gets to Judai's field, we see that the Defense-Mode Featherman card on the field under Featherman is reversed. Fixed first in AfterEffects, applying a proxy in a frame where most of the card was visible and masking Featherman back above it, then taking that frame into Vegas where I first redid the panning that happens, then I created a solid-color layer colored like the wind and applied some masking to replicate the gusts of wind that blow over the card.

(12) After Chronos summons his Wicked Lord Tokens and the crowd reacts, the smoke on the field from their summon simmers down, but the Featherman card under Featherman is reversed again. Fixed in AfterEffects by applying a correctly facing proxy and then masking Featherman back on top.

(13) After the commercial break, fixed the error with a Ra Yellow student’s miscolored jacket as he and the others watch Antique Gear Golem being summoned, thanks to thepalebride’s help.

(14) After crowd reaction to Antique Gear Golem being summoned, Asuka looks out onto the field and says she unfortunately heard the sound of the Academia's gates closing shut for Judai--as she does, we see that the blank-art card under Featherman is reversed. Fixed first in AfterEffects by applying a proxy under him in the first frame of the shot and masking him back on top, then taking that frame into Vegas where I re-panned it as the shot pans upward.

(15) After a brief blush, Judai summons out Winged Kuriboh, but he places it reversed on his Disk--and in the very next shot, it's correctly facing such that its name box is to our left. Fixed in AfterEffects by applying a proxy as he places it on his Disk, masking his fingers over it.

(16) After Antique Gear Golem destroys Winged Kuriboh and Judai tells Chronos that it reduces his damage to zero--to Asuka's shock--Judai takes Winged Kuriboh off his Disk and places it in his Cemetery slot in a quick shot, but the card is reversed again. Also fixed by 4Kids, I fixed this in AfterEffects by applying a proxy facing correctly in the frames in which Judai moves it.

(17) After summoning Flame Wingman, and after some taunting from Chronos, Judai activates an arena as heroic as he is in Skyscraper, but as he does so, Flame Wingman is missing from his Disk, as it should be in Zone 3. Fixed first in AfterEffects by applying a proxy (after finding the best-quality screenshot of Wingman's anime art and touching it up using an AI tool [I think I settled on Waifu]), fading it in as the scene fades from the Judai closeup to Judai about to swing his Disk around, and adding it as he does so, then applying a brightening and dimming as the Solid Vision lights go on around him. Once I did that, I went into Vegas and applied some masking on the little flickers that pop up over that zone to blend the edit in. (Side-Note: while dubifying the Skyscraper card in Judai's hand, 4Kids forgot to mask in his thumb over it, begging the question... how is Jaden holding that?)

(18) Fixed the blank Normal Monster card that should be Flame Wingman, both as Antique Gear Golem crashes onto Chronos and as the duel fades to an end.

#GX #yugioh #ygo #ygo gx #yugioh gx #yu-gi-oh gx #yu-gi-oh! gx #my subs #Judai Yuki #Chronos de Medici #ahh humble GX beginnings #[hopefully i'm not only just finalizing episode 180 in 2034...]#[Reblogs for visibility are always appreciated 🙂]

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princelylove · 1 year ago

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your highness, what's your opinion on gyro as a yandere? i see a lot of people thinking he'd be lax-- but i think he'd be the opposite honestly. i feel like he'd actually be somewhat harsh, for some reason. just vibes, tbh.

The idea that Gyro is lax is laughable. His nature has nothing to do with his actions, he can be a casual person who is also strict. Just because Gyro likes to play around doesn’t mean he isn’t serious- he fully intends on taking over his father’s role, doesn’t he? It’s hard to imagine someone who isn’t strict in that position- they have no real control, they have no real respect.

Gyro is a very well educated man. It’d be surprising if he wasn’t well read. He tries to get you to smile as much as he can- he’ll often point to his own face to model a big, toothy grin to show you what you’re supposed to be doing when he’s talking to you. If you associate his face with smiling, your brain will associate him with the neurotransmitters that go off when you smile, and boom, he’s in business. People tend to relax when they receive such a smile, but how could you when he says ridiculous things so casually?

You may assume he’s being insincere because of his default expression- mixed smiles, mainly grinning- but he really means all of it. No, he doesn’t want you to talk to other people. He drops it mid conversation- you weren't even talking about anyone else. He’s very quick witted, he has a response for just about everything (Example being “Did you say something? Were you talking into my ass? Because I can't hear anything with my ass.” Steel Ball Run Chapter 9: Long, Long Downhill). You’re in for a headache if you try to argue with him- mainly because he makes it seem he has an actual reason for all of his ‘suggestions.’

He doesn’t really need to, but to be honest, it’s easier to just tell you that he’s the expert and you need to just listen. To make his reasons more believable, he deals in half truths, or lying by omission. You shouldn’t talk to other people ‘cause we lost our soap and you never know what germs they’re carrying, and God knows the next time you’ll both see running water or a shop that sells some. You shouldn’t ride on someone else’s horse because Lady Luck sees you and him as lovers, and she’ll get mad if you cheat.

I can imagine Gyro singing Sabato Sera by Bruno Filippini (The one from Sanremo 1964), mainly because of that one gag from Chapter 63, as he attempts to replicate some form of domesticity with you. He’ll offer to let you brush his hair, or take a bath with him, or maybe try to teach you how to sew to fix his beloved teddy bear. Gyro isn’t really too happy when you mention previous plans- Who cares? They’re gonna die anyway, what a pointless way to spend time. Spend time with him! He’s not going anywhere any time soon, and neither are you. He’ll let you try to put makeup on him, play typical guessing games (What color is he thinking of? What does he spy in the distance? What year was he born?), or flip through the catalogue he gets as a way to pass the time. He knows you need enrichment or you’ll go crazy just sitting there, and he doesn’t plan on letting his darling just rot. You’re great for sitting still and looking pretty, but Gyro wants a mentally working darling that’s capable of choosing him.

#yandere gyro zeppeli #request granted #first time being called 'your highness' by an anon I need to archive this

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optiwashere · 11 months ago

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This is a big one for the Asheera replay.

Context if you've missed things so far: I'm replaying the game as Asheera again for a combination of inspiration, reminders of characterization, and also to solidify how Asheera feels about a lot of the major companion moments in-game. I'm also way farther than this now so I'm probably going to speed up what content the replay posts cover...

Before we get to the main event, I wanted to go over some of Asheera's high level thoughts on the companions so far!

Karlach - Fast becoming good friends. Lots of silly banter shared in camp, on the road, basically wherever. Asheera enjoys hearing Karlach's stories about Avernus whenever she's willing to share them; it gives her better perspective on her oath. To see what some would call a monster, a woman that was on the frontlines of the Blood War, and call her friend?

Lae'zel - Still tense, but Lae'zel is coming around on Asheera. Asheera respects her in combat, the crèche is still a possible cure, and she still knows more than anyone else in the party about illithids. Side note, but Lae'zel thinks the situation between Shadowheart and Asheera is pointless given their condition. It's not even physical? Why bother?

Shadowheart - Growing closer, and the rest of this post kinda goes into why. Asheera is starting to hear her faith as zealotry and that's concerning, but it's also... sad? Asheera hears in her words something that triggers the redeemer's instinct to search for more than what's on the surface. She doesn't respect Sharrans (who would?) and she wonders what lies behind the fanaticism.

Wyll - He's everything he ever said he was and more. Asheera thinks he's just a good guy, and that's honestly something she needs on her side. He's quite flirtatious too, which is a fun break from fighting. She doesn't swing that way, but it's fun watching him fumble with literally everyone in camp.

Gale - Asheera is glad that she was wrong about Gale. He really is just eccentric. Maybe a bit egotistical and prone to overexplaining himself, but he's been a decent man so far and he did explain the entire magical item eating problem pretty quickly. Being able to trust a wizard is always good!

Astarion - He's just fascinating. He's an asshole and a blowhard, but he's at least open about it. That at least gives her something to work with. The whole "pretending not to be a vampire" schtick was getting old anyways. Plus, imagine the look on her fellow paladins' faces when she tells them she actually had a chance at redeeming a vampire spawn? That's worth the effort alone.

Now. Time for Shadowheart and her "oh btw, I worship Shar" reveal. Which, you know... wasn't obvious by the armor she wears to begin with or the gigantic purple tent with Sharran iconography stitched into it. It's always good to have confirmation!

But seriously, this is a really major moment for the Asheera/Shadowheart relationship.

After Asheera hears this confession, I have to just headcanon that Shadowheart's tent doesn't have the iconography on it. Otherwise this being a "reveal" is completely lost for me. When she first mentions it, Asheera is definitely surprised. Yeah, Shadowheart can be annoyed when Asheera acts altruistically, but it's never been something that comes between them really.

She said 2 in this dialogue by the way. It's a moment where she wants to put all their cards on the table. After a somewhat long discussion, Shadowheart then says something that completely changes the tone of the conversation:

At this point, Asheera sees Shadowheart. Really, finally sees her. Not the "shield of secrecy" that she preaches blindly, mindlessly regurgitating things she's been told about Shar. Right here, she sees pain in every word that Shadowheart says about her Dark Lady. There is a purpose to it all, that's what she wants to believe.

Not the pain. None of what Shadowheart says here is actually about loss, pain, or suffering. What Shadowheart yearns for is purpose and meaning. That's all Asheera hears, and her heart breaks for this woman that she just thought was going to be a distraction during their adventure.

It's also so massive for Shadowheart's characterization for the same reason. She's so deluded that she then starts spouting propaganda that's completely and totally false...

Like, Shadowheart?

Baby?

Shar advocates for literally none of that lmao. Sharrans destroy things that aren't Sharran and call that idolatry, they worm their way into organizations with assassination and manipulation to control them, and heretics are anyone that will not accept Shar. The level of brainwashed this girl is operating on with this dialogue is wild and it remains one of my favorite convos in the game even on replay.

For Asheera, she hears the absurd self-justification in Shadowheart's words. She is almost melancholic throughout this conversation except when she's talking about Sharran ideals. Suddenly, she becomes angry. Like it's a learned response from decades of abuse to force her into the mold she's been randomly chosen to fit.

Asheera's heard zealots before. At this point, even if their situationship never becomes anything more, Asheera is convinced that she needs to know more about this woman's pain. Maybe there is a way to help her?

Side-note: Shadowheart's defensiveness towards her own abuser is so fitting that it's kinda hard to watch on replay, knowing what we know about her entire arc. "So long as it has meaning..." what if there is no meaning, Shadowheart? What if it was entirely arbitrary?

That's what Asheera's thinking during this.

Furthermore, when Asheera learns that she's had her memory deliberately suppressed — and combined with the pains from the wound on her hand — it's basically red flags galore. She's not used to dealing with someone so thoroughly... unaware of her own situation. Asheera is very much a "charge headlong into the situation" type person for the most part, even if charging means a discussion rather than a fight.

Yet Shadowheart thinks that she can have everything she ever wanted if she appeases her own abuser. Horrifying.

I find this single approval tag so fucking telling. The approval tags can sometimes be broken and multiple in one branch can be directly contradictory depending on the sort of "route" you're trying to bring a companion down, but there's no alternative approval/disapproval in these choices. Everything else is neutral, but this one touches her.

Like, at this point we all know that Shadowheart is a deeply wounded person that wants to believe in something so that she four decades of suffering was for something, but the fact that she approves of you offering to help her with her wound is so... there's an entire essay to be written there.

It's unreal. She goes on and on and on about how Sharrans must remain free of all but their love of Shar. Her (perverse, abusive) love of Shar is literally physically symbolized in the stigmata she carries.

And she approves of Asheera trying to ease that pain? I think Shadowheart rationalizes this as Asheera trying to help her be a "true" Sharran and avoid the pain altogether, but that's not what the dialogue says. Nor is it Asheera's intent. Her intent is to help her ease the pain.

Now, there's lots of ways to read Shadowheart's wound as a depiction of chronic pain, and I don't want to take that away from folks. Love that for y'all, but in "my canon" and with Asheera specifically this is a moment where Shadowheart reaches out, hand held open hoping for anything or anyone to reach back, and Asheera is the first person that doesn't swat her away in fear or call her a failure for not adhering to her religion.

She takes Shadowheart's hand willingly, ignoring all the traps and knives Shadowheart's set up to protect herself. Why was sharing everything so easy? Secrecy is supposed to be what Sharrans need, after all. Why was it so easy for someone to listen to the way she speaks and for them to say, "I'd be lying if I said [Sharran faith] didn't sound convincing."

So long as it has meaning, right?

Also, I keep forgetting to take screenshots of Asheera's Dream Visitor and since they were brought up in one of the Companion!Tav asks...

Here she is in the character creator because I think the next time I see this character they will look quite a bit different lmao. Seeing this person in her dreams doesn't startle Asheera, it's not uncommon for her to dream about this person but then this dream version of that person begins speaking strangely. It makes Asheera immediately distrustful of this thing, whatever it is, once it starts speaking freely and saying things that this person would never have said.

#oc: asheera #asheera replay posts #this turned into a pseudo-meta post and I really desperately hope it doesn't draw That Crowd lmao #this has been a neat little experiment but I'm going to move these to weekly/whenever posts so that I can focus on headcanuary + fic writin #this has been the juice I needed - some inspiration!#i'm def speeding these up in terms of content if not frequency...

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sunhowler-art · 2 years ago

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What is Gordie and Benrey's love languages? (Physical Touch, Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, ect)

i'm not the biggest fan of the love languages for reasons this video explains well, that being said it is a cute little character thought exercise anyway so i still wanna answer ^_^

gordie is canonically always touching people. always putting her hands on peoples shoulders, grabbing their arms, stuff like that. she's super handsy! she loves showing physical affection. always wants to hold hands or have her arm around benrey's shoulder or give him quick little kisses. she loves words of affirmation too, she's a mom after all. she's used to dishing out "good job"s and "i love you"s. actions speak louder than words for her but that doesn't mean she won't give out a million words on the side as a bonus.

benrey, on the other hand, is very bad with physical touch. it's not that he doesn't like it when gordie touches him (he really really loves it), it's just super overwhelming for him. he's not used to touch that isn't malicious. gordie has to learn when and how to give him space when he needs it, but she's more than willing to accommodate him.

benrey shows affection in a myriad of strange ways. i guess the best way to describe it is quality time, honestly. he loves following gordie around like a lost puppy. sitting next to her on the couch not doing much of anything. listening to her talk about whatever and staring at her face. he just likes being in proximity of her and being able to chip in with whatever bullshit he's got going on in his head and making her laugh. i do think he likes giving gifts also, but in a cat-giving-you-a-dead-mouse kind of way. like i've said in another ask, he loves getting gordie treats from his gas station. he likes finding new awful games to make her play with him. he also loves finding cool rocks and plants and trash to give her.

i've never mentioned this on tumblr before actually, which is kinda surprising because i think about it a lot, but i think benrey would get into the arts post-canon. like, all of them. he wouldn't be good at any of them in the traditional understanding of what makes art "good," but he's insanely creative and has a unique perspective and a complete disregard for norms and principles. he could make really interesting shit. incomprehensible collages made of absolutely any shit he could scrounge up, pottery comprised of impossible geometry, shitty songs he writes and performs with his guitar covered in miscellaneous stickers and stains, photographs of things that shouldn't exist, etc. he makes all this shit and more for gordie and she loves it. she doesn't understand any of it really, whether any of the things he makes even have a deeper meaning, but she's enamored by how fucked up it all is, and how it's all for her. she's never been an art person, and if you had asked her when she was younger what she thought about modern art she would've laughed and said it was stupid or pointless or something. but she kinda gets it now. it's like sweet voice: it's a language she may not ever fully understand but it's beautiful and meaningful to her all the same, because she gets to experience it when not many others can. she's special enough to be able to see it, and benrey trusts her with it. that's enough for her.

#this was longer than i thought. it would be #hope u like it fhgkdjfg #not art #answered #anonymous #gordie freewoman #benrey #frenrey

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syasyajcllm · 1 year ago

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Aaaand... Here's some of my REALLY old TF2 art from 2017 and 2018. Maybe someone will recognise me from it. (Doubt it xD)

cw: a lot of tearjerker words, mentall issues and kinda mentions of violence (?)

I’ve always wondered how cyclical history is. Six years has passed and I had returned to the most grotesque, both silly and peculiary wise fandom in my entire life (dare I say it). Back then, I was a socially awkward minor clinging to any chance to go deeper into the pointless escapism. Anyways, I was stuck in a frustration about having to set my career preferences already. It went so bad that after six (maybe seven??? i actually lost count) hospitalisations my doctor diagnosed me with paranoid schizophrenia. Nevertheless, slowly but surely, things were getting better. I got therapy and found out that I was misdiagnosed which is sadly not uncommon in Russia. I tried out so many medications only to find out that all of these were pointless. What a lame. Then, I tried to go back in time and recover my memories which was disrupted because of treatment I didn't even need. And I was pleasantly surprised how much tender teenage love I put into every art, every shape on the pic dedicated to TF2.

Back now, I recall how much emotions, communication and happiness this fandom gave me. And I'm so glad that it was not abandoned and forgotten like an average old (but gold) game and comics. By the way, my OC blonde soldier with facial scars went through this with me and I still adore him as well as my other 9 mercenaries. :) His name is James Tiberius Rourke and someday I'll make a post about him and other in those motley crew.

Back to the theme. I'm 21 now and I want to try almost the same experience but from another angle. I never needed to self-reproach about who am I, I never needed to put myself onto pressure, I just need to have fun and look at dirty rude and partially illiterate gravel war pigs and constantly say "aww, they're so cute when hysterically smiling after tearing someone's spine apart 🥺". Unlike in the past, now I have a measured personal life, a large circle of acquaintances and friends and a lot of prospects in the future. Six years in one fandom is actually my record and by the active return I felt refreshed. I hope my love to the game, the comic and its community will last forever.

#long reads #personal #expressions #team fortress 2 #digital illustration #tf2 oc art #James Rourke #tf2 fem #tf2 medic #tf2 soldier #tf2 #tf2 ocs #tf2 sniper #tf2 cats #tf2 scout #tf2 pyro #syasya art

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yourbestpalpercy · 10 months ago

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(ACK!! Update: I forgot to mention!! Eira and Dianica are my IRL Friend’s ToonTown Ocs! Same friend who made April, May, June and wrote 7 in Hush btw. She’s been a great help writing my stories! She’s also in the same place as me, working with what information we have on games like ToonTown and Splatoon.)

Everything was going pretty alright with the teacher’s assistant job. This was about 2 weeks after Prethinker had been kicked out of the School’s Basement. Weirdo. Making plans in the school basement…

Leaf had a good amount of Gags now. And in case you’re wondering, no, still not allowed to fight Manager Bossbots. However, they had softened up a little, allowing her to speak to them to try to avoid conflicts. I guess having a neutral could be useful to The Resistance, avoiding pointless fights. Admittedly, she had made a few more friends and hey! Holly (Gatekeeper) had invited her to a DnD group. Leaf couldn’t’ve been happier!

Tonight she had a meeting with The Resistance. Apparently, Melody had heard from a Cog she was fighting, that new Bots were being introduced. Not by choice, interestingly. This quickly led to a side mission where a different toon (That same deer that called Leaf an Oillicker) was told to sneak in and record everything.

“Harold Lesser is dead. He lost control of that…Toon Cog experiment he was creating. It destroyed him beyond repair, destroyed his database too! It’s gone rogue and is converting the other Cogs in the area into…Mediabots she calls them. It’s worrying. …She’s on the side of the Toons, at least in her mind, we’re worried she’s coming for everyone in her database.” The recorder murmured. Leaf fumbled with her hands. Chances are, Flippy would send her to try to reason with the experiment. She had been labeled as the Peacekeeper after all because she was good with reasoning.

“That monster won’t…” The speaker was cut off by the Chairman. “Big Fish. That’s enough. Please leave. I need a moment to think…” There was a clear sound of a door closing before- “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! Wh-WH-WHAT ARE WE G-GOING TO DO!?” There were sounds of someone running about and panicking. “G-Get all the suits in here! EVERYONE! This is a red alert!!” “Sir. I-I don’t think this room can..f-fit everyone?” “JENNIFER GET EVERYONE IN HERE OR ELSE YOU’RE FIRED!!” Leaf had to cover her ears! Normally she never had to do that!

The deer just smugly said, “It was louder in real life, anyways.” Flippy quickly paused the recording, “You could’ve warned us, Ronald…” Flippy mumbled under his breath. “Anyways, whatever this…experiment is, we’re gonna need to see if we can settle it…maybe? Leaf?” Leaf raised her head, uncovering her ears. “Yes, Flippy?”

“We’re sending you and Melody into this place, you’ll need to find a place in the back to sneak in through, we have no idea if the experiment is like the other places and we cannot take risks if she has Manager Bossbots in there. If things go south, Leaf, is your speaker done?” Leaf took out the speaker and stared at it for a bit. “...I’d say so, it has to be if we’re going to fight…”

So now Leaf was here…helping Melody pry a hole into the base.

“I’m still worried about this, Melody…y-yes, I’m a smooth talker b-but this is a straight up murderer!” Leaf whispered to Melody just as they pushed their way inside the base. “We’ll be fine, I promise. You’re a master at reasoning. I mean- you managed to reason with…which one was it? Chip?”

“No, I wasn’t allowed anywhere even slightly close to Mr. Chainsaw Face.”

“Uhm…oh right! It was Witchhunter.”

“The man could shoot fire, no way I was going to be allowed around him.” Melody was about to name another until, “Pacesetter. I was able to reason with Pacesetter. Graham.” Leaf looked around the base a little, being careful not to knock anything over or make a sound.

Didn’t matter though because, rather quickly, Leaf heard the sound of Melody yelling and trying to attack something. Leaf looked panicked and ran to where the noise was coming from. Melody was hanging upside down before a large computer.

Leaf panicked before throwing a Drop gag at the wire. A flower pot. She just had to hope it would land.

And it did!

A screech came from the computer before Melody was dropped and Leaf was grabbed. Without a second thought, she was thrown high into the air. Before she hit the ground, another wire grabbed her. “Who threw that!? Attacking Cogs!?” The voice stopped, holding Leaf upside down by the leg before that large computer. Before it was a large, mostly white dragon. Her face was nearly entirely rainbow. “Wait…are you-?” Another wire suddenly punched Leaf in the side. “Y-You’re not made of metal…y-you’re not a Cog! Oh my gosh!! What are you!?” The dragon started to excitedly shake Leaf about. “You’re absolutely adorable! S-So tiny a-and–! Oh wait, that’s because I’m big–! But still! Look at your green hair- Aw! You even have a leaf shaped pin in your hair! A-And your adorable little backpack!” Another wire grabbed Leaf’s backpack from her and squished her face. “You’re so squishy!!!” Her attention then turned to the backpack.

“I wonder what’s in here…” The dragon murmured and went near the bottom of the screen to look into the backpack. “Aww! You’ve got little gags! And they're Sound ones! Y’know, I’m a singer! I’m shocked not a lot of Toons know about me! I’ve released songs and yet- nothing! But you…you’re new! A-And something I’ve never seen before! Sooooo, I’m Iris! Iris Lovecake!” Iris flew about the screen for a moment before gently setting down Leaf. “You look fragile so :).”

“I-Iris huh…? A-And you must be the Toon Cog that’s causing serious panic for the Cogs?”

“That would be me! :P! And I’m a Toon. Just a Toon. Maybe an artificial one but still a Toon. I have no idea where the term ‘Toon Cog’ comes from!” Iris stuck her tongue out with a giggle.

“Sorry…i-it’s uhm..never mind,” Leaf approached Melody and helped her up, giving her support. “W-We’re here on behalf of the…the Toons to…convince you not to murder everyone?” Iris placed a wire over her mouth before she could continue. “I murdered 1 person and he totally deserved it! He was going to delete me!” Iris spun onto her back with a giggle.

“W-Well…I-I’m here as proof that there are good Cogs out there-.”

Iris let out an exaggerated yawn. “You’re on the Toons’ side? Who cares about a few dead Cogs? Especially when they’re ALL awful!” As Iris said ‘All’, her rainbow face shot bright red before it faded back into rainbow. “Well, I guess there are a few exceptions..”

“S-See!? Uhm-.”

“No. I don’t want your peace talk. I don’t think I made this clear enough…” Iris pinched her muzzle. “I don’t want “peaceful” mumbo jumbo. I want revenge!” Iris grinned at the thought, her eyes filling with black tears as her pupils changed to skulls. Her frill changed to bright yellow. “So please, if you’re going to yapping, I’m gonna have to remove you from the premises..” Iris smiled sweetly, folding her talons.

Melody looked back and Leaf could feel her freeze. “...Leaf..” She weakly pointed, causing Leaf to look back. There was a large cog right behind them. Its head was a stylophone. It didn’t seem to speak. Instead, it only buzzed to Iris. “Yes, yes, I know it hurts but you’re much better like this, Virtuoso,” Iris used her wires to gently cup the Cog’s face. “Now, if they mention another word about peace between Toons and Cogs, throw them out,” Leaf squealed, feeling the cold hand of the Cog.

“Look, it’s simple,” Iris said, still rubbing her muzzle. “Cogs and Toons will never get along. If they do, one or both of them are crazy. Cogs are too snotty! Just a buncha- blecks…” Iris rolled her eyes. “So, I’m eliminating them ALL!” Iris looked away from Leaf, only to reveal her tainted eyes once more as she grinned at Leaf.

“Th-They’re not all bad! Th-There’s Misty..a-and Holly–...”

“Well duh! I’m going to spare them. I’m going to turn them into Toons! I would do the other Cogs I like but…I couldn’t imagine them any other way…bye bye Mouthpiece…” Iris feigned (? Leaf couldn’t tell) sadness as she said this. “Poor Deep Diver too..a-and Flint…”

“Y-You don’t have to kill them! Cogs and Toons can-!”

“And that’s how Melody and I got literally thrown out of the base,” Leaf groaned, placing her hands over her eyes. “Believe me…I tried to reason with her but she’s convinced that she’s helping the Toons!” Leaf placed her head on the table. “I don’t know what to do…I-I’m also going to need a new backpack.”

“How lucky for you that you’re not the leader,” Mac chuckled, looking proud of himself. Leaf only lifted her head slightly to glare at Mac. Flippy just cleared his throat to quiet everyone down. “Ronald. Stop, Leaf, do you still have your speaker?” Leaf just..slowly took it out. “Hm…Iris seems more stubborn than we had expected…never thought The Resistance would have to stop a Toon from causing harm…” Flippy murmured. “Rocky? Do you have any opinions?” Flippy started. The tan dog looked to be thinking hard.

“...I think it’s only a matter of time before the Cogs come knocking at our door, begging for help.”

Dianica was tinkering with the MedPak 2.0 when she heard a soft buzz. She cleared some papers and picked up her phone, answering it. “Hello, this is L.A.B.S, Dianica speaking. How may I assist you?” On the other side was Flippy, the mayor of ToonTown. “Hey Dianica. We’ve got a…a big problem. Rocky theorizes that the Cogs will be knocking at the door soon, begging for our help.”

“What? Why would Cogs want our help?”

“Simply put, they were making this…Toon dragon thingy…and it turned against them. Normally, that would sound good, but…it’s kinda about to start going on a murderous rampage. Rocky also theorizes that’s not just going to be the Cogs she’s going to go after…”

“Oh, that sounds bad… I’ll be there in a bit, I just need proper equipment.” she farewelled Flippy, hanging up.

Leaf just sighed, “So…who was that?” Leaf asked, still sulking a little about the failure. “It’s an ally. Dianica. I’m shocked you don’t know her, her daughter goes to the school you’re an assistant at. She’ll most likely be here soon enough…” Flippy sat back down at the table and folded his hands. “Until then, we can try to think about-”

There was a light knocking at the door, and Flippy answered it. There stood Dianica, panting, with a weird metal backpack-looking thing. “Hi, did I arrive in time?”

Looking at her, she was clearly a Toon, but… She looked more like a Cog, with her skin color being silverish. Her eyes were reddish pink, and her tail looked like a cord of sorts. But, the most odd thing about her was the hole in her face, about where her nose would be, if she had one. A soft steam was drifting out of it, and her horns were slightly glowing green. She wore a lab coat that was torn a little, and streaked with mud near the bottom. “I came as soon as I could.”

Leaf sat up, looking at Dianica. She looked…a little- well, she definitely gave off…vibes. Vibes that made her a little uncomfortable. “Hi, y-you must be Dianica,” Leaf said, hoping it wasn’t too loud. She had a bit of a habit of talking loud due to her deafness.

“Hello, um, I believe Eira talks about you, but I’ve forgotten your name! Tsk, sorry, dear, I-I have a lot of things on my mind all the time, so I can be horribly forgetful. What was your name? Something related to a tree… Stem? No, Sapling? Probably not… Oh, wait, is it Leaf?”

“Yeah, but you can definitely call me Stem and Sapling, I don’t really mind.”

As Flippy turned away and guided Dianica to sit back down, there was a much rougher sounding knock at the door. Flippy’s expression changed to that of slight worry before he opened the door again. There stood one of the most terrifying Cogs Leaf had ever seen! He looked like a twisted fire fighter! Leaf grew tense before ducking under the table.

“Uhm..h-hi…is this The Resistance?” He spoke softly. Almost too quiet for Leaf to hear.

Flippy looked a little surprised too! He didn’t know for sure how to respond really. “Uhh..”

“Fl-” Dianica stopped herself, as if she didn’t want anyone to know she knew him.

“Y-Yes,” Flippy answered quickly before shaking his head, “I-I mean–...is this about the ToonCog?”

The firefighter just nodded. “...Is she…okay?” The firefighter asked, pointing to Leaf hiding under the table.

“Oh uh, that’s Leaf,” Flippy checked under the table. “Leaf?”

“...Y-Yes?” Leaf was shaking.

“What are you doing under the table?” Flippy asked.

“...Scary…” Leaf murmured.

The firefighter tilted his head and slowly pointed at himself.

Leaf responded with a nod.

“...Oh! You think I’m…well…I guess I look…” The firefighter looked himself over. “A little scary…”

Dianica just stared curiously at him. She then sighed and pulled something out of her bag, and a few tools, and started tinkering with it quietly.

“I’m Flint,” Flint smiled at Leaf and held out his hand for a shake. “...” Leaf just did the light shooing motion.

Flint looked immediately troubled. Flippy jumped in just in case, “Oh yeah, she does that when she’s scared. Don’t take offense to it, she did it to me too,” Flippy explained to Flint who nodded.

“Shockingly…I’ve never had erm…a-anyone be scared of me, Graham keeps telling me I need to…stop letting Toons walk all over…me…” Flint went on before noticing Dianica. “O-Oh! Dianica…I-I had no idea you…worked with The Resistance…”

“Yes, shockingly,” she said dismissively, “Good to see you again, Flint.”

Flint just nodded before anxiously standing off to the side. “O-Oh…! Right, I-I’m here to deliver a message from The Chairman of The C.O.G.S (as he insisted I referred to him as…)- We need your-”

“Help with Iris Lovecake?” Rocky finished for Flint.

He jumped a little, muttering, “I-...It has a name…?”

“Yes, it has a name. It- I don’t know where- I think H. Lesser named it. Don’t really know though. So.”

Soon, Leaf climbed out from under the table, retreating to the very back of the room and far away from Flint. “We uh…already tried talking to…it…”

“She stole my backpack…” Leaf added while slowly crossing her arms. “I lost all my gags but at least I still have my speaker,” Leaf refused to look Flint in the eye.

“She- we were afraid that- she would take over our lab, too. Uhm-...”

“So what they’re saying is, we accept helping the Cogs-” Rocky was cut off by Flint.

“O-Oh! Thank you-!” Flint smiled happily.

“On one condition,” Flippy said, holding up a finger for ‘1’.

“Oh,” Flint paused, looking a little more settled.

“You stop trying to take over ToonTown or at least stop attacking whatever Toons you see.”

Flint tapped his foot on the ground, processing the information. “...Should I go tell The Chairman of The C.O.G.S (as he insists I need to refer to him as) that? Y..Y’know, relay info…?”

Leaf nodded, finally making eye contact with the terrifying cog.

“Got it,” Flint nodded before leaving the building.

“Oh, and I’m almost finished with the MedPak, by the way,” Dianica cut in, adding a few finishing touches.

“Good, thank you Dianica,” Flippy nodded.

“Yes, I figured you’d be grateful for that. You’re welcome!” Dianica replied, then muttered, “Surprising that you all haven’t figured it out yet…”

“Figured out what yet? What, that you have connections to the Cogs?” Leaf asked with a slight giggle, she was teasing Dianica lightly because she was like a Cog. Now that Flint was gone, Leaf felt much better.

Dianica looked shocked for a moment, then masked it with a warm smile and a laugh. “Maybe!” she joked back- it didn’t really seem that she was joking, though.

Leaf picked up on this and-...never mind. “We need to discuss more about this..Iris problem,” Rocky spoke up.

“Indeed.” Dianica agreed. “I can’t wait to study her! Must be so fascinating, being a Cog that looks like a Toon. Wonder how that works…” She grabbed out a notepad and started scribbling notes into it- at least, Leaf guessed it was notes.

“She’s also dangerous, Dianasaur…” Mac hissed, glaring at Dianica. “You’re crazy if you think you can just-.”

“Oh get off her *ss, Mac! Seriously, are you ever happy? You’ll turn into a Cog at this rate!” Leaf suddenly hissed, glaring at Mac. Mac wrinkled his snout, “Says you, Boltsmoocher!”

Flippy groaned and abruptly separated them both. “Enough yapping! Not everything has to be a fight!”

“It is intriguing when it is a fight though,” Dianica muttered. “Also, Ronaldo, my name, for the LAST TIME, is DIANICA!!”

Upon hearing Ronaldo, Mac actually stopped talking, causing Leaf to just…stand there silently. “Oh my god…you silenced him. Thank you, peace on this world at last!”

“Oh, it was nothing. That always works for me! He’s a snowflake around me, kind of.” Dianica snickered at the look on Mac’s face.

“I AM NOT A SNOWFLAKE!! YOU’RE A SNOWFLAKE! SCREW YOU!”

“Ha, no, fu…frick you.” Dianica flipped him off. “Just SHUT UP already, your pettiness is boring me.”

“BOTH OF YOU. Stop it now.”

Dianica subsided obediently, but Mac was still scowling at her.

Flippy sighed. “We’re going to need help. Ronald, you go to that base and monitor Iris.”

“What? Why shoul-?”

“No complaints, you’re the best at stealth here, now get going please.”

Dianica grabbed a rather large thing out of her pack- a bit too big for the pack, actually. It was a robotic spout-looking thing.

Leaf tilted her head and got a closer look at the sprout. “What’s that, Dianica?” Leaf asked, holding her hands away from the robot.

“It’s a mini Robo-spout!! Very handy, if you need water in a rush." She reached back in the pack and pulled out a glove, put it on, and set down the spout. She pressed some buttons and clenched her fist. She moved it up, and the robot looked up.

“A handmade squirt gag! Just like my speaker,” Leaf excitedly pulled out her speaker. It looked rather unassuming, just being a black box with some lights on it. “I’d give it a test but for all I know, it’s incredibly loud, maybe loud enough to make me fully deaf!”

“A gag? It’s not…” Dianica glanced at Flippy. Flippy was talking to Rocky about what to do about Iris. “I mean- of course it is! Ha ha, yeah, I’m good at making stuff. Need something? I’ll make it for you!” she improvised quickly, even talking fast with a nervous undertone to her voice.

Leaf tilted her head, “A makeshift gag is nothing to be ashamed of, again, LOUD is right here,” Leaf picked up her speaker, giving it a light shake. “Are you not very good at using Gags?”

“I build them, not use them- not very often, anyways. Normally, I can just control them using this.” Dianica gestured to the glove on her hand.

“That would explain it, some of the gags are hard to use…”

“I… make the ones that are easy to use.” Dianica clarified.

“Wait, did you make my horn?” Leaf showed Dianica the heavily used horn. It was decorated in stickers and various other things. It was given a nice life so far.

“Yes, sort of. I helped with it, mainly the sound it makes!! Pleasant to Toons, not very with Cogs!! Fun, ain't it?”

“Dang right!” Leaf cheered and gave it a mighty, powerful honk.

*HONK!!!*

“Ehehehe!!” Leaf started laughing before tossing the horn for Dianica to give it a try. Dianica joined in, honking it again.

*HONK!!!*

“Love this sound!!” she cried.

“Definitely the best noise ever…” Leaf chuckled.

“Yeah, the Cogs can’t stand it!” Dianica giggled, passing Leaf the horn. “Anyways, I should get to work on this little guy.” She picked up the small spout-bot. “Exactly why it’s the best thing for sure!” Leaf kept bouncing up and down.

“As adorable as you two weirdly are, we need to focus on the Iris situation, unless you two want to go discover your twin souls somewhere else,” Doe chuckled. Doe! Leaf completely forgot about Doe! Leaf loved the yellow deer, she was so nice!!

Leaf quickly turned towards Doe, “We need to focus on the Iris situation. We’ll also need the strongest Cogs if Iris is as powerful as everyone suggests they are.” Flippy nodded, “That’s correct,” He then turned to Doe, “And I think we know one who is a perfect 1st option…”

“No, no, Flippy, we cannot talk to him. He nearly took your head last time…” Doe murmured, immediately worried at the thought, “And we cannot risk Leaf getting hurt. His face is a chainsaw.”

“Then Rocky and I can go,” Flippy said nonchalantly, he didn’t really mind if he lost his head.

“...I-I don’t have to come along, I think we can also talk to Misty. Iris is a computer, she’s probably extremely weak to water and who better than Rainmaker herself?”

“Then that’s the plan. Me and Rocky will go grab the Chainsaw Consultant, you and Doe go get Misty, try to recruit any other Cogs you find on the way too.”

The meeting broke apart quickly afterwards with everyone separated.

#toontown #ttcc #toontowncorporateclash #toontown corporate clash #ttccoc

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